A WOMAN had just gotten on her feet after losing her home, and now thanks to rent increases she might be forced back into a dire situation.

Elva Simmons, 72, spent weeks living in a tent before finding a decent place to live.

It came after she was forced to sell her five-bedroom home in Washington due to a family emergency.

At first, she thought she would be able to get a break when she found the Sun Tides Community owned by Hurst & Son, which had rental rates within her budget.

However, her refuge was short-lived.

A year after moving into her manufactured home, she has already experienced a rent increase, with the rate going from $535 to $610 a month.

Hurst & Son sent a notice to the elderly woman stating that she can expect another rent increase by January.

“What am I going to do? I’m stuck,” she told Crosscut.

“I tried to make the best of it.”

Hurst & Son is a privately owned real estate investment firm that has been making itself a prominent figure in the mobile home community around Washington.

In recent years, residents who lived in parks owned by the firm have complained of significant rent increases.

Residents like Caroline Hardy said the rent hikes have completely changed the dynamic in the neighborhood.

“There are some people who have been told ‘Don’t talk to your neighbor about this, or you’ll get evicted,’” she claimed.

“Or – there’s just, there’s a sense that if you talk with them, something bad will come back at you, you know, in one way or another.”

In order to save their homes, Simmons and other community members have joined together to advocate for new ordinances that would give them protections as renters.

Hardy and her neighbor Deb Wilson have spent months inviting local officials to their community clubhouse, where they could meet neighbors and hear their stories.

They were able to explain that passing ordinances that give renters advance notices of rent increases can help them prepare for the potential of an economic conviction.

“We must find a new affordable home and sell our forever home,” Wilson said.

“We must pack and/or get rid of many years of memories, household items, and furniture – remember these bodies are not the bodies of our youth. This will be overwhelming and physically draining.”

Thanks to their hard work, City Ordinance 6698 passed unanimously, and the community does not plan to stop there.

The community is hoping to gather enough evidence to eventually create a class action lawsuit.

The U.S. Sun has reached out to Hurst & Son for comment.