During a public forum in Aspen, Colorado, people described resident-owned mobile home parks as a practical way to help workers live where traditional home prices have become unattainable.
Here's what to know
At an Aug. 3 meeting at Aspen Chapel, speakers said converting mobile home parks into deed-restricted, resident-owned communities has emerged as one of the ways to create affordable housing, Aspen Journalism reported in collaboration with Aspen Public Radio.
April Long, executive director of the West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition, said the housing strain now extends far beyond Aspen.
"The challenge is crossing municipal and county boundaries — this is no longer just Aspen and Pitkin County's problem. It's being pushed farther downvalley," Long said, as Aspen Journalism relayed.
A housing-needs assessment discussed at the forum projected that the region will require nearly 7,200 more housing units over the next decade, including about 2,500 in Pitkin County and roughly 4,600 in Garfield County.
Speakers also noted steep home prices across the area. Median single-family sales range from near $500,000 in the Colorado River Valley and about $7.3 million in Aspen.
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Long said any serious housing strategy must pair new construction with efforts to protect the affordable homes that already exist.
"But once housing is lost to the market, it's almost impossible for us to recover that," she said.
More background
Residents of mobile home parks typically hold title to their houses while paying rent on the land beneath them, which can put them at risk of redevelopment or rising costs when ownership of the property changes.
That arrangement has become more urgent as investors continue to buy and sell park properties throughout the region.
Three mobile home parks between Basalt and Glenwood Springs have started moving toward resident ownership instead of a private sale.
At Aspen-Basalt and Mountain Valley, residents were able to purchase the parks after regional organizations, local governments, and many others came together to help assemble $42 million.
Those two parks contain 139 units and house roughly 500 residents. Much of the funding came from local governments in return for deed restrictions designed to preserve affordability.
Businesses contributed as well. Jonathan Jones, senior general manager of the Aspen operation of Atlantic Aviation, said the company's $1.1 million gift helped propel the effort.
"This community came together to do something very special, and I'm here to tell you we can do it again and again and again, and we can make a difference," Jones said.
What's being done?
The next major challenge is Cavern Springs, which is a mobile home park between Carbondale and Glenwood Springs.
A resident-run cooperative representing 98 households has a deal to buy the property for $23 million. At the forum, the group had raised just over $11 million but was still $1.8 million short with an October closing deadline approaching.
Supporters said the deals show both how effective the model can be and where it still runs into obstacles. Katherine Coe, a project organizer with Mountain Voices Project, said Colorado residents need more time and flexibility under state law to organize cooperatives, raise money and secure affordable financing.
Forum participants also suggested a regional low-interest housing fund and possible changes to state law that could impose annual limits on lot rent increases at parks that residents don't own.
Long also called on residents to show up at council meetings and back affordable housing proposals, saying regional coordination can work only if communities back projects before existing housing disappears.
Local resident Miguel Delgado said, "Owning this park together isn't just about a deed. It's almost 100 families who will learn how to deliberate, compromise and make their own decisions as a collective. What is more of an American dream than that?"
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