Safety should be an important part of your mobile home community. Besides the practical reasons, a high regard for mobile home safety can help you counter the mobile home stigma. Included in the mobile home stigma is the idea of poverty and crime. There are three problems with this stigma.
First, it denotes that mobile homes mean poverty-stricken homeowners. But mobile homes are growing in popularity for all Americans. Everyone benefits from affordability and quality in a home.
The second problem is this: it equates crime to lower-income families. This is quite the broad brush sweep of a group of citizens and it’s unfortunate. There are many lower-income families who live in cleanly and crime-free lifestyles.
The third problem in this equation is that the stigma is simply a stigma. You can escape the stigma.
But how? What can you do to promote mobile home safety?
7 ways to promote mobile home safety in your park this fall
There are several ways to promote mobile home safety in your park this fall. And with the advent of the holidays, it’s wise to start thinking of safety in your park for this season.
1 – Make foundation inspections mandatory
A sturdy foundation keeps a mobile home in tip-top shape. If your foundation settles in an improper way, it could break plumbing or cause other serious mishaps. While it’s not certain that it would cause mishaps that lead to fatalities, the possibility is there.
Have a foundation inspector come in once a year to check on your mobile home foundations and level things out if necessary. You could really save yourself some grief by being a step ahead of the issues that would arise if left unattended to wreak havoc.
2 – Require fire alarms in your park’s mobile homes
Another preventative measure to ensure mobile home safety is making fire alarms a requirement in your mobile homes. You could even help your tenants out by sending a text reminder every 6 months for tenants to check their fire alarm batteries.
Fire safety is no joke.
3 – Keep a tidy park
In keeping a tidy mobile home park, you’re keeping hazardous litter and debris off the ground. Litter is harmful to the environment and can even be a driving or walking hazard if it’s big enough.
Encourage your park to help keep the place clean, especially their own respective yards.
4 – Mandate that your tenants keep their dogs fenced in
Now, this is especially important in a park with seniors or children. Mandate that your tenants keep their dogs in a fenced in backyard. This will keep the dogs inside a safe contained area and outside of harm’s way. It will also keep the dogs from harming others.
Even the best of dogs may inadvertently harm a child or adult. Think of a big dog excitedly running full force to “love” on a child. It would knock the child down.
5 – Encourage a neighborhood watch group to develop
You can also encourage mobile home safety by sharing the idea of a neighborhood watch group. Your mobile home community may wish to head up such an endeavor. A neighborhood watch group will keep their eyes open for sketchy shenanigans in the park. They’ll be more in tune to mischief and better situated to look out for their fellow neighbor.
6 – Well-lit streets
Mischief is attracted to dim, dark areas. Talk to your power company for advice on what sort of lighting would be best to illuminate the neighborhood roads. Encourage your residents to install motion-sensor lights for their yards or porches.
A motion sensor light will spook away anyone who is tip-toeing around their home for the wrong reason.
7 – Host seminars with law enforcement
Finally, you can use your community center to promote mobile home safety in your park. Every so often, you can invite law enforcement to share pertinent information or workshops with your community. They can teach your community to be aware of the danger out there and how to react.
The first step in failing at mobile home safety is not being informed. You want to be aware so you know what you’re up against.
Your mobile home park doesn’t need to be a place of danger and crime. Set the tone with cleanliness, do what you can to ensure your tenants are on board with being responsible homeowners and the rest will be easy to implement.
Year-round safety
After fall, comes winter. It’ll soon be time to think of mobile home safety this winter. Snow, freezing temperatures, and other winter-related hazards can pose a threat to your residents. Be informed so that you can better serve your community and keep things running smoothly in the park, rain or shine.
About Dan Leighton
