‘This is deplorable housing': Fight continues over illegal mobile home rentals in Hialeah

Before taking public comment, the Hialeah city council played a series of safety videos from the fire and police departments showing the hazards of living in illegally rented recreational vehicles, or RVs.

Public comment lasted hours Tuesday as neighbors on both sides of the issue expressed their feelings and concerns.

In December, NBC6 Investigators found that RV rentals are becoming a growing trend in the City of Hialeah, but the trend is not only illegal, but city leaders say it is also dangerous.

"[Renters] are also connecting them electrically to their homes in very shabby illegal unpermitted electrical connections that are very dangerous," said Hialeah City Councilman Carl Zogby.

On Tuesday, the city council heard the first reading to tweak its existing ordinance on RVs.

"What we’re doing is in essence reducing the amount of RVs allowed in a single family residential property from four or five to one," said Hialeah City Council President Jesus Tundidor. "We believe that is fair."

Neighbor after neighbor complained before the city council about the nuisance rented RVs have become in their neighborhoods. In some cases multiple RVs could be seen parked in people's backyards.

"Hialeah is putting the focus on quality of life," Tundidor said. "We want to make sure that folks could have their trailers, but we don’t want folks having two, three, four or five trailers in a single family residential property. There’s no way. If you want to live in a trailer, go to a trailer park."

Those who support the renting of RVs for extra income pointed to the lack of affordable housing in the area, but Zogby said this is not the way to address the issue.

"They ain’t solving the need for housing," Zogby said. "This is deplorable housing. They’re very expensive. The only people who are benefitting from this are those homeowners or the tenants in them who most of the time aren’t even homeowners who are just making extra cash."

The final vote was not taken Tuesday. That will come at another council meeting.

The next one is scheduled for January 23, 2024.