There was not an empty seat in the Littleton City Council chambers at a recent meeting as over a dozen passionate seniors took turns sharing stories about how they love their mobile home community. Worried that a corporate bid to take ownership of Meadowood Village could break apart their community, they asked the city for money to help them purchase the land instead.
Several dozen residents from the mobile home park — which is located on the west side of Santa Fe Drive just north of Breckenridge Brewery — filled the room. The residents, mostly older folks, recently received notice of a corporation’s intent to buy the park.
“If we are purchased by a large corporation, they will only look at their bottom line — not at my neighbors or myself,” one resident said at the meeting. “If we own Meadowood, we can take pride in taking care of what’s ours.”
Shortly after the Meadowood residents heard about the potential sale of their park, they started taking action. A Colorado law offers mobile home park residents 120 days after notice of a potential sale to make their own offer to buy the park.
Resident Sandy Cook said residents have formed a business called Meadowood Cooperative that includes all but a few of the park’s 121 residents.
“Our goal here is to not let one resident have to move because they can’t afford to stay here,” she said “That’s why it got so critical for us to assure that we stay the community we are.”
It’s a common story in Colorado and other parts of the nation, where large, out-of-state corporate and institutional investors increasingly purchase mobile home parks. When the ownership changes, it often means hikes in what residents pay.
At Meadowood Village, residents have seen increasing costs for years, they said. In the face of a potential sale, they also are unsure if the new owner even wants to keep the park, and they fear the potential for redevelopment of the land.
With housing that’s affordable hard to come by across the metro area, including Littleton, mobile homes are often a catch-all for those who otherwise have few alternatives. They are considered the largest source of unsubsidized housing that is affordable in the nation. On average, a mobile home in the U.S. costs approximately $127,000, whereas a site-built home costs about $413,000, according to the Manufactured Housing Institute, a national trade organization.
On top of the cost of the mobile home, residents pay fees for the land their house sits on. Cook said the average rent in Meadowood Village is $850 to $900 a month.
With many Meadowood Village residents being low-income — including many veterans and disabled folks — the idea of higher fees is concerning. Several residents at the city council meeting spoke about their lack of other housing options if their homes become unaffordable.
“If we have this big developer come in, I have no place to go,” one resident said. “I can’t afford any of the housing that they have here, in Denver, or anywhere in Colorado. So, I don’t have a plan B.”
The cooperative elected a five-member board and got to work. Cook is the operations manager and has been taking charge of grants.
She said the residents are also working with Thistle, an organization that helps mobile home park residents purchase their parks. The cooperative is now in the process of gathering money for a down payment.
“One day, you or your loved ones may be in our shoes, and we hope and pray no one would ever turn their backs on you,” one resident said to the council. “We are depending on you to step up and give us the help and support that we desperately need.”
Cook did not disclose how much money the cooperative needs for the down payment, but one public commenter made a specific request of $2.6 million from the city to go towards the cause.
The cooperative is also asking for financial support from Arapahoe County and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, Cook said.
Deputy City Manager Mike Gent said the city is exploring all possibilities to see if there is a way it can help.
“We heard, very eloquently, from so many residents, that they love their community,” he said. “It’s really easy to want to do the work that we’re doing right now … This is something that staff really feels strongly about; trying evaluate every possible strategy that can be used here.”
He noted, however, that even if the cooperative gets the money it needs for the down payment, it doesn’t guarantee the residents would be able to own the land. What follows would still be a challenging and uncertain process before anything would be finalized, he said.
“Certainly, we’re all motivated to find a solution,” he said. “It’s just, unfortunately, not nearly as straightforward as some of the other services we provide.”
Councilmember Gretchen Rydin requested that staff also look at options for providing rental assistance or making zoning changes to prevent potential future redevelopment of the land.
The Meadowood residents spoke of their community as a special place, where neighbors know each other and help each other out. One resident said a group of neighbors meets for coffee on Monday mornings to see how they can help each other throughout the week and share jokes.
They said they are a part of the Littleton community, with many active members of the Buck Community Recreation Center and others who enjoy the Bemis Public Library Bookmobile, and they don’t want to have to move.
“We stick together, and we’re trying to save our own community,” one resident said. “The reason why you have so many people (at this meeting) is because we’re this close to not being able to stay there.”
Cook said the residents have until mid-June to make an offer on the land.
Gent said the city will have an update for residents at the next study session on April 23.