Alamogordo NM
7-02-2026 2:33pm

Candidate Nagamine Issues First Major Policy Statement, Says Tinsley Fire Shows Need for State Leadership on Mobile Home Park Abuses

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — Independent House District 51 candidate Grace Nagamine says her heart aches for the families displaced by last week’s fire at Tinsley Trailer Park, and that she is thankful no residents or animals were hurt as a result of it.

High winds turned what began as an accidental trailer fire on North White Sands Boulevard into a multi-structure blaze on June 28, damaging six structures and displacing several families. Nagamine offered thanks to the first responders who kept the fire from growing worse under that day’s high-wind conditions, and to the Red Cross for providing support services to the families affected.

But Nagamine said the fire is also why she felt compelled to speak out now, releasing one of her first detailed policy statements since entering the race. The incident, she said, is a clear demonstration of why leadership from the state level — not just local code enforcement — is essential to protect manufactured home communities from neglect and abuse by out-of-area owners.

The statement, issued also in response to a candidate questionnaire from the Land of Enchantment Home Owners Alliance, lays out a series of positions on manufactured housing affordability and safety — an issue Nagamine says has gone largely unaddressed by the district’s current representation, even as Alamogordo’s senior population grows and cost-of-living pressures mount on fixed-income families.

The fire has pushed an issue long simmering in Alamogordo’s manufactured home communities — home to many of the city’s seniors, retired Holloman Air Force Base veterans, and working families — into public view.

A Property Already Flagged

The Tinsley property had been on the city’s condemnation list since September 2024, when the Alamogordo City Commission voted 7-0 to cite the property for maintenance failures and code violations. Owners were given a two-year window to bring the property into compliance — a deadline that had not yet passed when the fire broke out.

“Families lost their homes because a pattern of dilapidation was allowed to continue past the point of safety,” Nagamine said in the statement, adding that displaced residents were left with only what the Red Cross could provide the night of the fire.

Nagamine said the incident is not isolated. She pointed to earlier utility failures at two other area communities: Desert Palms Mobile Home Estates, where residents went more than a month without natural gas for cooking, hot water and heat after a leak, and White Sands Community Mobile Home Park, where residents reportedly went without gas service since April 2024. Nagamine said it took an investigator from the state Attorney General’s office visiting Alamogordo before either situation drew intervention from an authority with enforcement power.

Policy Positions

Nagamine laid out support for:

• Stronger enforcement of the Mobile Home Park Act (MHPA) — a state law she says has existed since the 1980s without meaningful enforcement — including empowering the state Department of Justice to investigate violations on behalf of homeowners.

• Opportunity to Purchase legislation, which would give residents of manufactured home communities the right to organize and purchase the land under their homes, either as resident-owned communities or through community land trusts. Twenty-two states already provide this right, according to the statement.

• Tying rent increases to the Consumer Price Index, with exceptions requiring documented justification such as repairs or improvements, rather than what she called “speculation dressed up as maintenance.”

• Relocation assistance for displaced homeowners when a manufactured home community closes due to neglect, condemnation or disaster, citing the high cost and structural risk of moving manufactured homes.

• Federal review of large-scale investors, aligning with U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez’s Keep Mobile Homes Affordable Act (H.R. 4969), which would subject investors owning more than 2,500 mobile homes or lots to review for price gouging or utility neglect.

Nagamine’s statement also referenced three state bills from the most recent legislative session — HB 418, HB 426 and HB 442 — addressing MHPA enforcement, opportunity-to-purchase rights, and rent stabilization, respectively.

Legislative facts: HB 426 passed the full New Mexico House 37-26 in 2025 with bipartisan support before stalling in the Senate without a hearing.

Incumbent Rep. John Block voted against HB 418 in committee, opposed HB 426, and voted against HB 442 in committee; those votes are verified by reviewing the state voting records for the session. 

Looking Ahead

Nagamine said that if elected, she would push for shorter compliance windows and interim safety requirements for condemned properties, state-funded emergency housing and relocation resources for residents in communities under active code enforcement, and a formal coordination process linking city code enforcement, the state MHPA enforcement authority and the Attorney General’s office.

“Our elderly neighbors, our retired military families, and every hardworking family in a manufactured home community deserve to know that their safety will not be gambled on how long an owner can stall a condemnation order,” Nagamine said.

For more information on the candidate visit her Facebook page per a press release from the campaign at:

https://www.facebook.com/share/19DuTMs8Ze/?mibextid=wwXIfr

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