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More than 20 million Americans live in mobile home parks. They're a crucial source of affordable housing, but these homes don't always stay affordable. Residents usually only own the homes, not the land underneath. And when that land sells, they residents can get kicked out. One park in Colorado found a solution. Natalie Skowlund explains.
NATALIE SKOWLUND: (Speaking Spanish).
VERONICA: (Speaking Spanish).
SKOWLUND: On a Saturday morning in Durango, Colorado, a family of five is lounging, still in their pajamas, inside this small, rectangular mobile home. A kids' cartoon blares on the TV. This place has been home for Veronica and her family for almost a decade. We're only using Veronica's first name because she is undocumented and fears deportation.
VERONICA: (Speaking Spanish).
SKOWLUND: To the outside world it might just seem like a tiny little trailer, Veronica says, but to us, it's home - cozy and full of love, peace and calm. Over the years, Veronica and her husband have fixed the place up, painting and adding a rumpus room for the kids. But in 2022, this mobile home park went up for sale. A notoriously predatory corporation offered $5.5 million in cash for the lot that houses about 60 trailers.
MEAGAN EHLENZ: For manufactured housing communities, one of the biggest challenges that they face is instability.
SKOWLUND: Meagan Ehlenz is an associate professor of planning at Arizona State University.
EHLENZ: Evictions and displacement and rent hikes are very common as private investors come in.
SKOWLUND: The people who live here weren't going to let their homes go without a fight. They started raising money to try to match or beat the corporation's offer. Some sold tamales and hosted rallies. And they got support from local businesses and elected officials in this town of 20,000 people. Stefka Fanchi with the Denver-based nonprofit Elevation Community Land Trust said it wasn't easy.
STEFKA FANCHI: We were speaking different languages. We were from different areas. We were at different points in our lives and our careers and our families. And yet, we all were exactly on the same page at this moment.
SKOWLUND: Fanchi worked with residents to leverage public subsidies with major loans from banks, local governments and foundations. They had just over a month to do it, and their first offer was rejected four days before deadline.
FANCHI: It was the Durango community that came together and said, the fate of these people is intertwined with our - the fate of my family.
SKOWLUND: Public fundraisers came through in time, allowing the land trust to take ownership. Now it is the landlord. But as a nonprofit, it manages it for the benefit of residents. They're now on long-term leases. And if residents leave and sell their trailers, they're limited in how much profit they can take, to keep the park affordable long term.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Speaking Spanish).
SKOWLUND: (Speaking Spanish).
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Speaking Spanish).
SKOWLUND: Veronica says she is tremendously relieved her family can keep their home. Only about a thousand mobile home parks across the country are communally owned by residents. They still require significant ongoing cash flow to support maintenance, services and property management, and the community has to work together to keep it all on track. But for now, for Veronica's family, it's just enough.
For NPR News, I'm Natalie Skowlund.
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