Mobile home residents--there are about 22 million of them in the U.S.--are usually renting the land their home sits on. That means that landlords can sell the mobile home park, which often leave its residents in a situation where they either can't afford the new rent price, or can't afford to transport their home elsewhere.
CityLab contributor Hallie Golden says that some residents of a 25-mobile -home park in Duvall, Wash., have found a way to secure the future safety of their homes by forming co-ops and purchasing the entire property from the owner.
They formed a co-op, got a loan, and bought the 4.5-acre land, about 25 miles northeast of Seattle, for $1.18 million. With that, they officially became Duvall Riverside Village. Now any household can pay the one-time membership fee of $200 to become part of the co-op that owns the land. In other words, the residents were given the long-term security and financial stability that is so often unavailable at a mobile home park.
After they officially bought the land, each household was responsible for a monthly co-op fee of $475 (About $25 more than they were paying before the switch). Since then, that monthly fee has only increased one time, by $5, because of higher insurance rates. Bowen said when the land was owned by an outside landlord, rent increased by at least $5 to $10 every year.
Today, at least 220 mobile home parks have been converted to resident-owned communities, said Mike Bullard, the communications and marketing manager at ROC USA, a national non-profit that helps residents take ownership of manufactured home communities. ROC USA and its affiliates have helped to make this switch for 14,252 homes, a quarter of which have made the change in just the last two years.
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