Hundreds of owners of manufactured homes went to Springfield on Tuesday to fight a classic David and Goliath battle.

Arriving by bus, the group of mostly senior citizens took their problem directly to lawmakers; they say their rent is too high and they want relief.

About 50 manufactured home residents gathered at 6:30 a.m. in south suburban Monee Tuesday morning to board a bus heading for Springfield. Their mission was to lobby lawmakers about what they consider unfair rent increases by double digits.

NBC5's Carol Marin reported that Pat Fogerty gave the seniors their marching orders.

"When you go to a legislators office, you will speak to them about the issues that are on the handout," she said as she addressed the group through the tour bus' sound system.

In Illinois, Marin said, 300,000 people live in about 2,000 "mobile home parks." The residents own their homes but rent the land on which the manufactured home sits. Those rents, they say, are skyrocketing to the benefit of the companies that own the land and the detriment of the homeowners.

"They are entitled to turn a profit," Fogarty said, "but they're not biting the hand that feeds them, they're crushing it."

From communities all over Illinois, including Elgin, DesPlaines and Peoria, the homeowners converged Tuesday on the state capitol to buttonhole as many lawmakers as they could, Marin said.

They presented issues that they consider to be important to people who live in manufactured home communities.

Among the legislators pushing for laws to protect homeowners is Elgin Republican Ruth Munson.

"We are still working hard to make sure that all tenants in all mobile home communities in this state are treated fairly," Munson said.

Willow Lake Estates, in Elgin, is one of two mobile home parks owned by the company of Chicago billionaire, Sam Zell.

Zell's company said in a letter last week to three lawmakers that it has a responsibility to its shareholders to protect the return on their investment and that the owners of manufactured homes -- the people that converged on Springfield on Tuesday -- are using the media to protect themselves.

One bill that could pass on Wednesday provides some protection by giving homeowners two-year leases.

Though it targets public companies like Zell's, it exempts a huge number of other privately-owned mobile home parks.

Marin set out to determine why, attempting to get an answer from "controversial power broker Victor Reyes" at the state capitol Tuesday.

Reyes' lobbying firm won the exemptions, but Marin said he "did not want to talk about that," and instead sent his partner, Mike Noonan, to meet with Marin later in the day.

"We think this addresses the real problem of folks who are facing ... double-digit rent increases," Noonan said of the program's exemptions.

Fogarty, 71, raised six children and hoped to spend her retirement in a place she could afford. She and the others went to the state capitol Tuesday to wage their battle, hoping to get a few more people to listen and understand the financial hardships they continue to face.