Mrs. Clement loved the friendliness of her neighbors and watched the sun rise over the clear middle to the east and set behind the foot of the Rocky Mountains to the west. And living there was affordable for her salary as a sports coach: After buying the house she built, the rent for the plot she was sitting on was just $ 625 a month. But just six months after she moved, the plot and all the stability and comfort that accompanied it suddenly seemed to be uprooted beneath her. The Colorado couple who owned the park for years had put it up for sale. Mrs. Clement and her neighbors knew that if the park were occupied by one of the largest industrial housing operators buying parks across the state, rents would rise dramatically. “It was like this deflated feeling, oh my god, I thought we had it – I thought this would be our roots,” Clement said. Across the country, residents of industrial housing parks, such as Clement, are finding their homes at the heart of the bull as a flood of investment firms expands mobile home park portfolios at breakneck speed, threatening the stability of one of the few remaining residuals. of the nation. The Golden Hills residents quickly organized. They formed a cooperative to offer to buy the park themselves and were well on their way to receiving funding from ROC USA Capital, which supports resident communities across the country. For months they were full of hope. The area of three plots of beige houses and double width full of community meetings. residents distributed leaflets and newsletters. Local politicians rallied around them and the city voted the park zone for home use only. But to no avail: In July, the owners rejected their initial bid and a higher one a few months later, and sold the park to Harmony Communities, a 5,000-home housing company in 33 parks in the western United States. The company quickly proved the Golden Hills residents’ fears true by implementing 50 percent rent increases and publishing a 12-page list in conjunction with the park’s new rules. A spokesman for Harmony Communities, George Antipas, defended the increase in rents, noting that new rents are still lower than in similar parks nearby. “We believe in charging a fair rent for the market,” Antipas said, adding that additional revenue would be used to cover repair costs and that subsidies would be available based on needs from the city. Then, just one month after the purchase of the park, the company offered to sell it to the residents – at a much higher price than the company had just paid for it. Once again, however, the deal failed when the company rejected the residents’ offer in January. Faced with both rent increases and the cost of moving their homes to comply with the park’s new rules, residents rush to look for other housing but find little or no choice in Golden, a thriving city just west of Denver. . In a street apartment complex, one-bedroom units start at $ 2,400 a month, nearly $ 1,000 more than Ms. Clement said she paid for the same apartment in 2018. Industry leaders are blunt about the business model: According to materials for a boot camp for aspiring mobile home park investors prepared by Mobile Home University, which is run by two of the largest mobile home park owners in the country, ” “The fact that tenants can not afford the $ 5,000 cost of moving a caravan keeps revenue steady and makes it easier to increase rents without losing ownership.” Real Capital Analytics, a market research firm, reported in a June 2021 report that investors accounted for 23% of industrial housing purchases in the previous two years, up from 13% two years ago. This has made investors among the biggest owners in the country. About 22 million people live in industrial homes in the United States, according to the Manufactured Housing Institute, a national trade organization. And Fannie Mae said industrial housing accounts for more than 6 percent of the country’s housing. If residents of mobile home parks can not keep up with rising rents or can not afford to make the often-needed changes to terraces, gardens and awnings required under the new administration rules, they are quickly replaced. With prices and rents for all types of housing soaring in many parts of the country, the demand for industrial housing is growing. Many young professional families and students turn to caravan parks as the last remnant of a relatively affordable housing. “It is, and has historically been, an affordable home that people can own — at least in half — and build some wealth, some equity,” said Paul Bradley, president of ROC USA. As the park has since become corporate-owned, dynamics have been created in mobile home parks across the country and in state legislatures to protect the parks’ affordability by putting them in the hands of residents. When the Sans Souci mobile home park near the picturesque Flatirons of Boulder was purchased by a corporate owner in 2018, residents did not have the opportunity to make an offer. As soon as maintenance crews appeared on vehicles with flashing lights and started cutting bushes, trees and flowers, residents learned that the park had even been sold, according to residents. Owned by Strive Communities, the park increased rents by 12 percent and issued extensive new rules for the park’s maintenance, instructing residents — many of whom are elderly artists and self-proclaimed hippies — to remove yards. their years of collecting works of art and decorations. . “They wanted a park with a uniform appearance,” said Cynthia Ceelen, a 23-year-old resident. “That was their ultimate goal, so that in three to five years they could resell.” According to Strive Communities, the rent increases were intended to bring rates closer to market value, and the company invested nearly $ 1 million in park improvements. Residents went to their elected representatives, asking for legislation that would require park owners to inform residents when they intended to sell, a provision called a “bargain” requirement. Gov. Jared Polis has signed into law the requirement for Colorado legislation in 2020, and similar laws exist in many other states. The work of the people of Sans Souci soon paid off. That same year, Strive Communities notified residents that the park was for sale. Some of the residents objected to making a purchase offer, resisting the $ 150 a month rent increase needed to finance the purchase. But the majority thought it was worth it. “It didn’t matter if we bought it for a lot of money or not,” Ceelen said. “Pure and simple, if we do not buy it, it will be acquired by another company.” They made an offer and in 2021 became owners of their park. “People are proud now,” said Peggy Koon, a park ranger, who said her neighbors had done a better job of maintaining the park since they acquired the property. There has been talk of starting a community garden or setting up a solar network for the park. “It’s an optimism in the air – ‘oh, what else can we do?’ said Mrs Kuhn. But in the two years since the Colorado Market Opportunity Act went into effect, only Sans Souci and two other parks have been sold to residents. In 20 cases, park owners failed to notify residents of compliance with the law before the sale, according to data from the state Department of Local Affairs. In others, residents were notified but found it difficult to reunite quickly enough to make a purchase offer. State spokesman Andrew Boesenecker, whose city of Fort Collins has seen a sales turmoil in a park in recent years, including a recent $ 57 million sale, says the bargaining law is not going far enough. In legislation introduced this month, Mr Boesenecker proposes requiring park owners to allow residents or a local government to make the first bid. The bill would also limit rent increases to 3 percent per year. Another bill is being drafted to give residents access to a loan fund that would help them compete with private equity firms, many of which receive government funding to buy parks. In the Golden Hills, residents believe the legislation is coming too late. Patricia George has lived in the park for 12 years. But with her new rent of almost $ 800 a month eating most of her disability benefits, leaving her with only $ 250 each month, she can not afford to stay. She spends her belongings and sells everything she can to make a difference: her TV, her mother’s antique dishes, her grandmother’s jewelry. He has applied for senior housing, but the waiting lists are long. “It is almost inhuman, what they are doing,” said Ms. George. “All we have to do is put the pieces together, whatever they are, and maybe we can do it. Or many of us may end up on the streets, in homeless shelters, if there is an open bed for us. It’s hard. It’s really difficult. “ Susan C. Beachy contributed to the research.
