A sign on a busy Hialeah Street advertises an RV for rent. On social media sites, the NBC6 Investigators found several ads offering mobile homes for rent, calling them apartments.
Our team found mobile homes in Opa-Locka, Miami Gardens and Miami being advertised for $1,000 a month each. In Homestead, we found a mobile home advertised as a "house" for $1,200 and in Hialeah, there were ads renting RVs for $1,350 and $1,650 for a two-bedroom.
Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo has been raising a red flag about the practice for months.
"It's an illegal use of the RV. In many cases, they may have more than one at their house and it's affecting the quality of life of the neighborhoods," Bovo said.
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"Rents are very high and everyone comes together to help each other out," said Randy Oliva, who lives near the for rent sign we found in Hialeah.
According to a recent Wallethub study, Hialeah, Miami and Fort Lauderdale are some of the least affordable real estate markets in the country based on income and rental costs.
While Oliva doesn’t seem to mind people renting out RVs, he does say some property owners go overboard renting several mobile homes. Driving around Hialeah, the NBC6 Investigators found a home with three RVs parked in the yard.
Investigations
The NBC 6 Investigators get results
Willians Guerra, the Hialeah Fire Chief, said turning an RV into a permanent dwelling in someone’s backyard is a safety hazard.
"It creates an access issue," Guerra said.
"There's also a question of gas being stored in these vehicles…connection to water and sewer, electrical lines being connected to it," Bovo said. "There's a host of issues that we should be concerned with, and we shouldn't be turning a blind eye because there's a housing crisis in the city."
The mayor says he’s considering limiting the number of recreational vehicles that can be parked at a home, including mobile homes and boats, and not allowing them to be in the backyard where inspectors can’t see them.
“We want people to have their RVs and their boats, and we want them to use it for leisure activity," Bovo said. "They've earned the right. What we don't want them to turn that into a housing complex, single-family residence."
South Florida isn’t the only place where mobile homes are being used as permanent dwellings due to the lack of affordable solutions. Several cities in California have been dealing with lines of RVs parked on the side of residential streets. Although California has the most favorable laws for mobile home parking, the city of San Francisco plans on imposing four-hour parking restrictions on some of the streets lined by RVs beginning Dec. 19.
