Shaheen sponsors bill to support resident-owned manufactured housing communities

When the Meredith Trailer Park was put up for sale decades ago, residents feared new ownership would mean the 13-home park would be torn down and redeveloped.

But instead of developers capitalizing on the lot, which was prime real estate along the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee, a cooperative of park residents came together to purchase the land. Now, it’s the Meredith Center Cooperative the state’s first resident-owned manufactured housing community.

When residents purchased the park in 1984, their choice not only preserved their park but also laid the framework for an affordable housing model that has since boomed across the country.

Nationwide, ROC-USA works with over 300 resident-owned communities. Now, federal legislation, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, has been introduced to help preserve these communities.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen

The bill, which was introduced by Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, would establish a permanent grant program to help revitalize manufactured housing communities with a specific emphasis on those that are resident-owned.

With it would come funding for infrastructure improvements like water and sanitation.

In Boscawen, when the roads in the Woody Hollow cooperative began to disintegrate and patches to a rusted water line began to burst, the resident-owned community received nearly $1 million in funding from USDA Rural Development to offset the cost.

The Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement grant program would provide federal funding for similar programs.

Congress passed a pilot of this grant program with $225 million set aside. The bill would now make that funding permanent.

At a time when home ownership costs are high, resident-owned manufactured housing communities offer an affordable and democratic model.

In June, the median sale price for a single-family home reached nearly $500,000 in New Hampshire. With a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, along with a down payment and property tax expenses, this means homeowners would be paying just over $3,500 a month, according to analysis from the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute.

Within a resident-owned community, members elect a board and meet annually to set expenses like lot rent, trash collection and snow removal, as well as park rules.

Historically, lot rents of resident-owned communities versus parks managed by landlords have remained not only steady but significantly lower. After five years of ownership, park fees are $600 lower on average annually than commercially owned sites, according to ROC-USA.

After the Meredith Center Cooperative became the first resident-owned community established in the country, a rich history of this model has followed in New Hampshire. Of the 300 communities that ROC-USA supports, nearly half are in the state, according to the Community Loan Fund, which helps finance the cooperatives, providing affordable ownership to more than 8,800 households.

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.