Residents of three manufactured home communities had a lot to celebrate in July as they took ownership of the land beneath their communities, securing affordable housing for their families.
On July 24, the residents of Arbor Mobile Home Park and Heritage manufactured home communities located in Westfield, MA, and the residents of Lincoln Mobile Estates Cooperative, in Lincoln, Rhode Island became the newest manufactured housing cooperatives to join a national network of 247 resident-owned communities, totaling 16,851 homes in 16 states.
The residents are excited about the opportunity to own and manage their communities.
“All I can say is, hurray! It’s already feeling like a community,” said Phyliss Martin, Secretary of the Arbor Board of Directors. “We are excited to begin our journey together.”
For many residents, purchasing their communities creates the solace and peace of mind that they have secured affordable housing for the future, and in doing so, have protected their assets.
“As a residential owner, I can feel safe putting money into my home, without the fear of losing it,” said Leo Matos, President of the Arbor Board.
The new resident owners of Heritage MHP are also looking to the future with optimism and hope.
“As homeowners, the purchase of our mobile home park represents our desire to move into the future with pride and to uphold the traditions of Westfield in a meaningful way,” said Joanne Ramirez, Board Secretary at Heritage.
Libby O’Flaherty, Cooperative Housing Specialist with the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI), worked with both communities during the purchase process. She credited the Board Members and other community volunteers with bringing together their neighbors and learning what they needed to become cooperative land owners.
“These two communities have worked incredibly hard to achieve this goal and it has been an honor to work with them,” O’Flaherty said. “When members came together for the final vote to purchase, it was a unanimous yes in both communities and the excitement was palpable.”
“Every community purchase holds a unique story and set of circumstances and each also follows a familiar pattern – homeowners joining together to gain control of the land under their homes because it’s in their best interest to do so,” said Paul Bradley, president of ROC USA, LLC. “It’s as fundamental and simple as that when you get right down to it.”
The Arbor and Heritage communities in Westfield,Massachusetts, and Lincoln community in Rhode Island, are part of a two-state, three-community sale. All three communities were put up for sale by the same owner as a package, under a single contract, and the purchase by three resident groups was executed simultaneously.
Taken together, the three community resident purchases will preserve 187 units of affordable housing. The total purchase price of the three communities was $6.9 million. Financing was provided by ROC USA® Capital.
“The option for three residents’ groups in two states to purchase their communities in a single deal presented a unique challenge,” said Andy Danforth, CDI’s New England Resident Owned Communities (NEROC) Program Director. “This type of a deal has never been executed before. In all, we now support 49 converted communities in 6 states with close to 12,000 residents and over $200 million of program investment in the last nine years.”