That's the problem, warn advocates as they watch developers snatch up mobile-home parks and residents then struggle to move their "manufactured" homes.

There is one silver lining on the dark horizon and that is Park Hill, 4000 S. 200 East, where residents are about to close a deal to own the land under their homes.

It's possible only after a long effort by advocates who several years ago persuaded the Salt Lake County Housing Authority to buy the park and are now guiding residents to form a cooperative that will secure loans to purchase it.

This week, a small group of mobile-home owners urged Democratic Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and his Republican challenger, Michael Renckert, to seek new mechanisms for resident groups to buy the land where some have lived for decades.

Although it is possible to move the so-called mobile homes, the cost - $7,000 to $25,000 - is prohibitive for fixed-income seniors and low-income workers.

Also, there is quickly becoming no place to move them.

"Where are seniors and low-income families going to live?" asked Virginia Marrufo Martinez of Salt Lake County Action Program.

Mobile homes have not been recognized, as they should be, by policy makers as a source of affordable housing, said Mark Lundgren, director of Utah Resident Owned Communities.

Some older mobile homes can't be moved by law. With newer ones, it remains a challenge.

"I wouldn't do it again," said Robert Greer, who recently moved his manufactured home from The Meadows in Cottonwood Heights to Park Hill.

"When we moved into The Meadows, they told us it would never be sold, but it was."

The short haul to Park Hill cost Greer at least $9,000. But the price in frayed nerves was much higher. Nonetheless, he is one of the lucky ones who found a new location.

Donald Saulnier, president of Utah Mobile Homeowners Action Group, wants the Legislature to pass a law that would give residents first right of refusal when park owners decide to sell out.

"We don't argue they shouldn't have the right to sell at fair-market value," he said. "But we should have the first opportunity."

Earlier this year, state lawmakers required mobile-home-park owners to give nine months' notice to tenants before evicting them.

csmart@sltrib.com