Suzanne's Mom's Blog

In the world of affordable housing, the trailer park traditionally got no respect. Until now. When residents cooperatively buy the land under them, self-esteem is one of the many benefits.

Sarah Matusek writes at the Christian Science Monitor, “One sunny, cold morning last January, John Egan joined fellow mobile home park residents on a neighbor’s front porch. They needed to organize. But how? 

“ ‘I had to go to the restroom, and when I came back from the restroom, they said, “Hi! You’re president!” ‘ recalls Mr. Egan.

“The half-dozen folks had convened to think through how to buy their Durango, Colorado, park from the private landlord – a move Mr. Egan and others deemed a shot in the dark. But now they at least had a president for what would become an interim board. With guidance from a housing nonprofit and majority support from the community, residents succeeded in purchasing the roughly 15-acre property within five months. They celebrated with a picnic, as the new Animas View MHP Co-op joined some thousand other resident-owned communities countrywide. …

“The resident-owned market constitutes just 2.4% of manufactured housing communities nationwide. Bolstering the health and longevity of mobile home parks is important as they are a critical source of affordable housing, say industry experts. Recent legislation in Colorado offers some provisions for communities like Animas View that hope to secure their future by governing themselves.

‘Everybody sleeps better at night,’ says Steve Boardman, here for 20 years, as he takes out his recycling. ‘We’re in control.’

“River, mountains, grasses bleached blonde in autumn – the Durango mobile homes have a million-dollar view. Largely immobile and costly to move, these factory-built units have been commonly called ‘manufactured homes’ since 1976. They house an estimated 18 million to 22 million people in the United States. …

“The median annual household income of these homeowners – $35,000 – is half that of site-built homeowners, according to Fannie Mae. Manufactured housing fills 6.3% of U.S. housing stock, with more than double that share in rural areas.

“Many residents own their homes but not the underlying land, for which they pay ‘lot rent.’ That model can spur financial precarity: These homeowners are ‘more likely to see their homes depreciate and have fewer protections if they fall behind on payments,’ reports the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

“Media reports have increasingly shed light on private-sector purchases of these parks that often result in rent increases, which housing advocates deem predatory. 

“Mobile home park investor Frank Rolfe counters: ‘When we buy these properties, they’re often in terrible condition, and [we] bring them back to life. … You can’t bring old properties back to life without raising rents.’

“Mr. Rolfe estimates that he and a partner are the fifth largest owners of U.S. mobile home parks. ‘There is this conception I think out there that park owners are in some way hostile to residents buying their own communities, and that is completely off base,’ says Mr. Rolfe, co-founder of Colorado-based Mobile Home University, which trains investors to purchase parks. Three parks he co-owned have been sold to residents.

“Mr. Egan and his wife, Cate Smock, bought their trailer here in 2012 – an affordable move to Durango so their son could attend a better school. But afterward, they saw their lot rent, which includes utilities, increase annually, if not twice a year. … Animas View residents also complained of the previous owner’s lack of attention to their needs and delayed repairs.

“Shortly before Christmas 2020, residents learned that the latest landlord, Strive Communities, intended to sell. Residents began to organize almost immediately. …

“ ‘We don’t tell people that it’s easy’ to become resident-owned, says Mike Bullard, communications and marketing manager for ROC USA, a New Hampshire nonprofit that, along with its affiliates, reports having helped nearly 300 manufactured housing communities become resident-owned. (ROC stands for resident-owned communities.) …

“In Colorado, the network affiliate Thistle ROC helped the Durango cooperative patch together funding for their purchase. But to afford the financing, the co-op increased lot rent by $80 this fall (rent ranges between $755 and $825). While the uptick may seem counterintuitive, it’s not uncommon, says Mr. Bullard. 

“ ‘These groups are buying not just the real estate, but the business,’ he says, adding that lot rent for new resident-owned communities will typically drop down to market rate or below within five years. …

“ ‘One of the first things that we decided when we met as a board was that we would not allow anybody to be forced out of the park because of an inability to pay the rent,’ says former board president Mr. Egan. …

“To ensure folks can afford to stay, the community is developing a rental assistance fund. In addition to seeking outside funding, some residents plan to donate spare dollars themselves.”

More at the Monitor, here. By the way, this all started with New Hampshire’s Community Loan Development Fund, here. I published several articles from them when I worked at the Boston Fed.