After almost a year of paperwork, grant applications and meetings, the residents of a mobile home park in Littleton are now the proud owners of the land beneath their homes.
In purchasing the park, the residents of Meadowood Village have gained control of the property and have locked in affordable housing for at least 30 years, based on the terms of their loan agreements.
Last spring, the residents received notice of a corporation’s intent to buy the park, which is located on the west side of Santa Fe Drive, just north of Breckenridge Brewery. Since then, the residents, who are mostly over the age of 55, have worked together to achieve ownership of their mobile home park.
Because a Colorado law offers mobile home park residents 120 days after notice of a potential sale to make their own offer, the residents of Meadowood Village worked to become a cooperative. They made an offer on the park, secured financing, conducted inspections and, on Jan. 10, officially became the owners of the land beneath their homes.
“It’s ours now,” Meadowood Cooperative President Sandy Cook said. “That’s the important part. That’s what our goal has been for the last year, is to make the park ours.”
When notice of the corporate intent to purchase came in, Cook and her neighbors were concerned that the potential new corporate owners would have raised rents on the land beneath their homes. They feared this would lead to the displacement of many residents who relied on their mobile homes as a form of affordable housing in an expensive market.
With housing that’s affordable hard to come by throughout the metro area, including Littleton, mobile homes are often a catch-all for those who otherwise have few alternatives to be homeowners. Also known as manufactured homes, these structures are often considered the largest source of unsubsidized housing that is affordable in the nation.
On average, a manufactured home in the U.S. costs approximately $124,000, whereas a site-built home costs about $410,000, according to the Manufactured Housing Institute, a national trade organization.
Cook said owning the park brings comfort to the residents and makes it possible for everyone to stay in the community.
“(We are) relieved that we know that we won’t have to move if a big corporation comes in and raises the rent to a point that we could not afford it,” she said. “It gives us comfort … to know that we’re going to be able to stay in the homes that we had planned on staying in.”
The cooperative did have to increase some land rents to have enough revenue to pay off interest from its loans, said David Stouder, who serves as the board’s operation manager. Land rents, which formerly ranged somewhere between $780 and $995 per month, will now be $960 per month for all residents, he said.
Despite the increase in some rents, Cook said the community reached its main goal — making it possible for all of its community members to be able to afford to stay in Meadowood Village.
“Going way back in the very beginning, our one goal (was) not only to keep our rent affordable, but it was not to lose one person in our park,” Cook said. “As of right now, every single person that is in this park is going to be able to stay, which was our goal.”
One of the stipulations in Meadowood Cooperative’s loan agreement with the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) is that the cooperative cannot sell the park for 30 years, and rents must stay affordable based on state definitions, Cook said.
“That just means that our goal of making sure we keep low-income people housed — which was certainly a large part of it … is mandatory,” Cook said. “We are always going to have that restriction for 30 years, so that assures that everybody in the park is going to be able to afford their rent.”
For a few residents who have lower incomes and may struggle to pay their rent, Cook said the community has started a fund for the other community members to donate money to support those who may need assistance. They have also started a food bank to help neighbors who are in need.
“We’ve done just about everything that we can think of to make sure that everybody is taken care of,” Cook said.
Finding funding
With a purchase price of about $18 million, the Meadowood Cooperative board spent months requesting support from local governmental bodies and working to secure loans to make the purchase possible. They worked with Thistle, a Boulder-based nonprofit that supports mobile home parks in becoming resident-owned communities, to form their cooperative and secure financing for the purchase.
The Meadowood Cooperative received funds from the City of Littleton, Arapahoe County and DOLA to support the purchase. Littleton contributed a $200,000 refundable grant for earnest money and partnered with Arapahoe County to contribute a combined $75,000 for inspection and legal expenses, according to a press release from Thistle.
“It is great to see a community gain control of its future like Meadowood has,” Littleton City Manager Jim Becklenberg said. “I am very pleased that the city was able to help the residents persevere through the process in a very modest way that resulted in more protected and affordable housing for the community.”
Arapahoe County also supported the residents by advocating for DOLA funds for the purchase and by encouraging Thistle to get involved in the project, Arapahoe County Commissioner Chair Carrie Warren-Gully said.
“What the residents of (Meadowood Village) have accomplished is truly incredible and (the) Arapahoe County commissioners were honored to play a key role in helping the community become a resident-owned community,” she said. “Without this historic purchase, residents would be subject to rent hikes and eviction and would lose control over key decisions that affect their lives.”
In loans, Meadowood Cooperative’s biggest supporters were ROC USA Capital, Impact Development Fund, DOLA and CHAI Debt Capital. Arapahoe County also contributed a $750,000 grant from American Rescue Plan Act funding to support the purchase to preserve affordable housing for vulnerable populations. The Telluray Foundation also contributed a $50,000 grant to the purchase, according to Thistle.
To support the cooperative with legal services, Denver-based attorney Hillary Ellis provided pro bono services to the cooperative.
Tim Townsend, the resident-owned communities program director at Thistle, said the Meadowood Village purchase had the highest price tag of all of the successful resident cooperative purchases the organization has supported. Most of the resident-owned community purchases they have been involved with have ranged between one to nine million dollars in purchase price, he said.
Stouder said closing on such a significant sale left him and the other board members in awe.
“It was nearly impossible to do what we did,” he said.
Justin Holman, a senior manager in the resident-owned communities branch of Thistle, celebrated the community’s efforts to achieve such a significant success.
“I think it’s incredible — I tip my hat at the community, and the board specifically, (for) working through this,” he said. “They are resilient and really wanted to get this done, and I am really excited for the future of them.”
The ins and outs of cooperative ownership
Beyond affordability and stability, Townsend said a benefit of being a resident-owned community is that the community has power over the decisions about their park.
“They have a say in all their rules and bylaws,” he said. “If they want to make a policy about parking, they as a group get to make that policy — not just have an owner come in and say, ‘Hey, this is a new rule you have to follow.’ They all have a say in it — they have to vote it in and approve it.”
The cooperative adopted bylaws, hired a property management company and hired other contractors to assist with maintenance and management of the park, Cook said.
Because all of the cooperative members are part of the business, they can also access information and have a say in the park’s financial decisions, such as annual budgets, Townsend said.
Cook said all but a couple of the 139 park residents are members of the cooperative.
Since the purchase, she said residents have already joined committees to help with the operation of the park and have begun cleaning and decorating common spaces. They are also discussing other projects they may choose to do in the park, like improving irrigation and adding a dog park or other amenities, such as cornhole or horseshoe game areas.
“Everybody is getting involved, and that’s really good to see because they realize that they have a say in what they want to do,” Cook said.
Looking forward, Cook said she knows there will still be challenges to overcome. For example, the DOLA funding will not be available until later this year, she said, so the cooperative had to secure a high-interest loan to fill the gap in the meantime. This will mean something between $200,000 to $400,000 in interest to pay off this year, and they are seeking ways to fund these payments, she said.
Cook said the community was successful because they came together, even through the months of challenging negotiations.
“There were a lot of people, a lot of entities, that did not think we would make it,” Cook said. “There were certainly a lot of times that we didn’t know whether or not we would make it … But I guess what I’ve learned is, never give up, have faith in the people … Every person in this park had such confidence in us – it was almost a matter of, we couldn’t fail.”
Despite the challenges ahead, and with their future in their hands, the residents are full of relief, hope and determination.
“Now that we’ve bought the park, there’s still a commitment here,” Cook said. “You have to continue what you’ve started, and to make sure that it works for everybody, and it will. That’s the one thing I can say with all honesty — this park will make it.”