People who live in mobile home parks are in an unusual situation.
Many own their manufactured homes, but they don’t own the land their house sits on.
Their landlords can raise lot rents, ignore maintenance needs or even close down the entire mobile home park.
Simply packing up the mobile home and finding a new park is expensive, and sometimes impossible.
But as New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports, the Granite State is a national leader in efforts to give these residents more control of their lives by turning them into park owners.
Sfx: knock on door, Seaward answers, ‘Come on in.’
High School history teacher Rob Seaward lives at the Village at Riverside mobile home park in Rochester.
7 years ago, he and his family moved into a 14 by 70ft single wide mobile home.
Since then Seaward has poured effort and money into upgrades.
Track 7
:06 every year we try to come out here and figure out something new to do. At one point it was the deck, at another it was the pool, it was the shed, this year it was the air conditioner...
With the blackberry bushes, the trees, the mulch, the hammock, Seaward’s yard is the kind of beautiful spot he hoped to find, back when high rents for houses and apartments forced him to seek less expensive accommodations.
It was not an easy decision to look at ‘trailer parks.’
Track 15
:00 Whenever anybody mentions mobile home, the first thing that comes to mind is trailer trash...for some reason people will say, I can’t believe you live in a mobile home...When I first moved in, I think I had that stigma myself. I was embarrassed to tell people where I lived...
Seaward’s gotten over it.
...over the years I have grown out of that stigma, and I think many of the people that live here, have as well. We are just regular American people, living in regular American homes.
About 10 million Americans live in mobile home parks.
Those homes are affordable, but they can bring other costs.
A recent New Hampshire survey found manufactured housing dwellers pay 3-12% more in interest on home loans compared to mortgage holders.
On top of that, many mobile home owners rent the land they live on, and it can literally be sold out from under them.
A New York group has offered several million dollars for the Village at Riverside where Seaward lives.
If the sale goes through, there’s no guarantee the park’s 178 mobile home pads will remain.
But residents do have another option.
Track 40
:40...they are now a tenant in the park, and could become an owner of the park, by having a share in the cooperative.
Jim Mathes, works for the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund.
Under New Hampshire law once a park owner reaches a sales agreement tenants have 60 days to match the offer.
Mathes’ job is to help residents organize themselves into a buying group.
That’s just what Riverside park residents did.
They formed the Windswept Acres Coop.
It’s 7 o’clock and about 120 park residents are meeting at the Rochecester Community Center.
Sfx: Meeting sound
Their decision isn’t an easy one.
In order to match the NY deal, they will need to significantly increase their monthly lot rent.
Seaward, as interim board president, makes the case for buying the park.
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1:57 Ploughing will be contracted out. No more of this, hey I can’t get out of my road, b/c I have 16 inches of ice on the ground, and a pot hole so big, my kid disappears when he goes out to play...Last but not least, we will never be sold again. What are you willing to pay for that?
People are definitely interested, but before they can make a commitment, they have a lot of questions.
If the group votes to match the bid, they will be on track to become the state’s 60th mobile home coop.
New Hampshire has been helping turn mobile home tenants into mobile home owners for 19 years.
George McCarthy with the Ford Foundation in New York City says more and more states are following New Hampshire’s lead.
McCarthy says New Hampshire was able to get over a psychological hurdle early on.
22:23 ....in the housing world, people have been running away from manufactured housing for 25 years...it’s the parahia of housing......well, these guys, way back.... were approached by people who were going to be displaced...they didn’t have any road map...they came back with an idea and they put it into place, and grown it since then.
The New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, which oversees the program, refined its approach over time and provides a lot of support before and after coop conversion.
The result, since the program began, not a single coop has defaulted.
To Cheryl Sessions who works for the New Hampshire Loan Fund, the success rate is connected to the transformative power of homeownership.
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1:36 I remember going out to a cooperative, it had just converted, blue collar workers, not a lot of familiarity with board members or corporations,...and while the board meeting was going on, one of the board members daughters was running around, and I said, this meeting is so strange to these people that have never had these meetings, but its’ not going to be unusual for her, she’s going to have different opportunities and different experiences.
No one claims the program is a panacea.
Just like any community, Coops have disagreements.
Members argue over speed limits and curfews.
With very little formal training, coop members must sort out issues such as insurance, back rent, and capitol improvements.
It’s not unusual to see the initial enthusiasm wane.
The Cardinal Haven coop started 11 years ago.
Long-time resident Ron Goodwin says only about a fifth of the members come to the meetings.
Track 48
2:38 there still some people who come in and this is a place to live...we wish we had more participation than we do get. We have the monthly meetings, encourage them to come, and most of them chose not to.
Back at the Rochester Community Center most of the Village at Riverside residents have come.
Windswept Coop members are craning their necks to count the pink cards held up indicating a ‘Yes’ vote to submit a bid on their park.
Track 64
2:14 it carries. 71. (applause)...she’s so excited she’s got goosebumps. GROUP HUG!!! (laughter)
After the vote, a woman that wants to be known only as Tina, described her feeling when the near unanimous vote was called.
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2:53 when that vote came through, and they said it had passed, you whole head filled up, and your eyes filled up and it was nice to hear them applauding...like when the American flag goes by in the parade...it makes you want to cheer and cry.
Crying, says Tina, is what she would have been doing if the Coop measure had been defeated.
With an ill husband forced into early retirement, her family spent their reserves on a mobile home.
And Tina says a rent increase, or park closure would have sent them scrambling.
Instead, she’s already planning the party.
Track 12
2:09 ...we will probably have a good block party...4:17...music and dancing and lots of good food in one of the cul-de-sacs after we purchase...phew...thumbs up, let’s go for it.
For NHPR News, I’m DG.
