Street roots
8
Feb. 3, 2012
Manufacturing
their own community
Is turning manufactured
housing parks into
resident-owned
cooperatives the key to
preserving Oregon’s
largest stock o f affordable
housing?
BY A M A N D A WALDROUPE
STAFF WRITER
r ir
o hear Travis Blythe and Dan
Fountain talk about the Vida Lea
Mobile Lodge, you’d think it is the
most beautiful place in Oregon, if not planet
Earth.
“It’s in the mountains,” says Blythe, 67.
“This park is still in the tall pines, and it’s
still on good well water, instead of city
water. It’s above the fog level of the valley,
but it’s far enough down where it’s below
any heavy snows. It’s one of the prettiest
parks around.”
Vida Lea is located just off the McKenzie
River Highway between Eugene and the
Willamette National Forest. A single lane
road curves up a small hill with single and
double-wide manufactured homes on each
side of the street, nestled into the trees.
Residents can walk down the hill and across
the street to the MacKenzie River and a
T
n e a rb y park.
P H O TO CO URTESY OF CASA
A boy rides his bike through Horizon Mobile Village near McMinnville. With support from CASA, the residents form ed the Horizon Homeowners
Cooperative and now own the park.
legal issues, and all the other rights and
responsibilities associated with being a
property owner.
It’s not something many Vida Lea
residents — all of whom are 55 or older —
envisioned for themselves when they first
redeveloped the land.
“For three years, it was a mad house,”
says John Van Landingham, a Eugene-based
Legal Aid attorney who advocates for park
residents. “I never anticipated that parks
would convert to another residential use.
subsidy, advocates think continued park
closures would be “a huge blow to the stock
of affordable housing,” Van Landingham
says.
“It’s an asset that needs to be protected,”
says Peter Hainley, CASA’s executive
m o v ed to th e sm all m a n u fa ctu re d h o u s in g
N ever. I ju s t a ssu m e d th a t if so m e o n e b u ilt
d irecto r.
Closures ceased with the recession, a
a park, it would stay a park forever.”
park, most often to downsize their lives and
But Vida Lea has deteriorated in the past
welcome respite to Van Landingham and
“We hadn’t seen anything like we saw in
transition to retirement.
few years to the point that it “just drops my
others, who immediately began thinking of
that time period,” says Andree Tremoulet, a
But like residents in other manufactured
jaw,” says Fountain, 59, who has lived in the
ways to prevent future closures. Van
research associate at
housing parks around
park for eight years.
Landingham visited New Hampshire, home
Portland State
Oregon who face
The road is cracked and needs repaving.
of the organization Resident Owned
University’s Center
yearly rent increases
A windstorm from last March felled a
Communities USA (ROC USA), that has
for Urban Studies.
that strain their low
number of trees that stuffed the culverts
converted 92 parks in the state into
“Parks sometimes do
or fixed incomes, or
and blocked drainage. Its septic system is
Between 2001 aad 2 0 0 X SO close
resident-owned cooperatives since 1984.
because they’ve
the threat of out-of-
close to failing. Fountain also says
m a n n fa ctn re i home p a rta
The organization also provides training to
reached the end of
state landlords or
blackberry bushes have slowly grown
their life, or an owner organizations throughout the country
closeir displacing
companies that will
throughout the park, becoming an eye sore
interested in replicating the model in their
evict them and
approxim ately 2^800 people, dies and the family
in an otherwise beautiful area.
state.
doesn’t want to keep
demolish the park to
Vida Lea’s residents are ready to take
la ewery caser the park
Van Landingham started working to
it. That’s pretty
redevelop it, Vida
control of their park. On Saturday, Jan. 20,
owaers
s
o
li
the
park
to
create a similar model. He and other
unusual.”
Lea’s residents feel
17 residents sat down together in a meeting
affordable housing advocates successfully
It was pure,
companies or ia ilo lia a ls
the pressure of
room located in Leaburg’s fire station.
lobbied for numerous changes in state law
unadulterated
knowing that their
who demolished the parks
Present were staff of CASA of Oregon —
during the 2007 and 2009 legislative
capitalism happening
homes may not
Community And Shelter Assistance Corp. -
and
redeveloped
the
land.
sessions, protecting park residents and
right before their
always be there,
a nonprofit housing developer that runs the
encouraging the creation of resident-owned
eyes.
much less affordable.
Manufactured Housing Preservation
The park closures
cooperatives.
It’s up to them to
Program, whose goal is preserving
were devastating to
The changes included allowing the
rise to the challenge
manufactured housing parks as affordable
Van Landingham and
creation of nonprofit cooperatives (before,
of saving not only
housing by helping park residents purchase
others because manufactured housing may
organizations could become nonprofits or
their homes, but their way of life.
their park and become non-profit
be the largest and most affordable type of
cooperatives, but not both), creating a
cooperatives.
housing in Oregon. Residents of
capital gains tax break for park owners who
It was the last of many meetings Vida
manufactured housing parks tend to be low-
sell parks to residents, creating a $5,000 tax
Lea’s residents had together and with
income, elderly, on fixed income, or a
anufactured housing parks are planned
credit for residents who move their homes if
CASA’s staff since July to decide whether to
combination. Tremoulet’s research found
communities made up of
a park closes, creating a lottery-backed bond
purchase the park and become a
manufactured, or factory built homes. Not that almost 65 percent have incomes below
program helping finance park purchase, and
cooperative, a decision both exhilarating and
$30,000 a year. Many parks, such as Vida
built on site, the homes are transported and
a law requiring park owners to pay residents
somewhat frightening.
Lea, require that residents be 55 years of
deposited to the site and hooked to
a moving stipend if the park closes.
After hearing CASA’s staff run through
electricity,
water
and
sewer.
age
or
older,
making
them
an
important
Depending on whether the homeowner
the financing allowing the residents to
There are between 1,000 and 1,100
source for seniors wishing to live
owned a single, double or triple wide home,
purchase Vida Lea - which includes low- or
manufactured
housing
parks
in
Oregon,
independently.
they would be paid $5,000, $7,000 or
no-interest loans, grants, and a temporary
making
up
10
percent
of
all
housing
in
The rental situation of park residents is
$9,000.
rent increase the residents elected to
Oregon. It is unknown with certainty how
unique. They own their home, and rent the
“That was a really big victory,” Tremoulet
impose on themselves — the 17 residents
many
people
live
in
the
parks,
though
lot
space
the
home
is
located
on,
typically
says. “It was a moment whose time had
present, representing a majority of 24
estimates
hover
around
100,000.
paying
rent
to
someone
who
owns
the
entire
come.”
residents willing to become a cooperative,
CASA began working to convert parks
park. Manufactured homes come cheap.
Van Landingham approached CASA of
voted.
*
into
cooperatives
in
2007,
after
a
period
They
most
often
range
between
$35,000
and
Oregon to gauge the organization’s
It was unanimous.
beginning
with
the
housing
boom
in
the
$60,000.
Fountain
bought
his
double-wide
“They’re ready to be in charge of their
willingness to become Oregon’s version of
early
2000s
and
lasting
until
the
real
estate
home
for
$45,000
using
money
from
the
own futures,” says Julie Massa, CASA’s
ROC USA. “It scared the shit out of me,”
and
housing
market
crashed,
bringing
the
sale
of
his
previous
home.
resident organizer, who has provided Vida
Hainley remembers. “We had never
economy
along
with
it.
That
period
might
be
Living
in
a
manufactured
housing
park
is
Lea’s residents with countless hours of
organized people to own their own homes.”
considered
manufactured
housing’s
version
incredibly
affordable
(some
would
even
say
technical assistance, counseling and
Not knowing what to expect, he and his
of
an
apocalypse.
cheap).
Fountain
pays
$380
a
month
to
rent
support.
staff created CASA’s Manufactured Housing
Between
2001
and
2007,
69
manufactured
the
space
for
his
double-wide
home,
a
40-
by
CASA is now in the process of finalizing
Preservation program and began finding
home parks closed, displacing approximately 60-foot lot. Blythe pays $430 a month, which
the park’s $1.25 million purchase, expected
parks to convert into resident owned-
2,800
people.
In
every
case,
the
park
is
as
high
as
the
rent
gets
at
Vida
Lea.
to close in mid-February. Vida Lea’s
cooperatives. The experience has been one
owners sold the park to companies or
Because of manufactured housing’s
residents will then become responsible for
individuals who demolished the parks and
affordability without relying on government
the park’s maintenance, property taxes,
See COM M UNITY page 9
M