Owners of manufactured homes who cooperatively purchase the park where they live are discovering benefits such as increased value of homes, decreased maintenance costs, faster resale, and willing lenders.Housing - New Hampshire ; Housing - New England

Cheryl A. Sessions

English

Research Papers in Economics

Communities & Banking    
Manufactured  
Housing Comes of Age
A Support  Network for Resident-Owned Communities
 
One morning in 1987, Florence Quast arrived home from night duty as an   
obstetrical nurse in Nashua, New Hampshire, and was surprised to see her 
neighbors assembled by the mailboxes of her manufactured-home community. 
by Cheryl A. Sessions
New Hampshire Community 
Loan Fund
New Hampshire Community Loan Fund courtesy photograph    Summer 007
“We’re going to have to move,” the residents 
said  anxiously.  “They’re  going  to  sell  the 
park to a developer.” Alarmed, Quast and 
the other 56 families in the Milford neigh-
borhood contributed $10 each to retain a 
lawyer. With the help of the New Hamp-
shire Community Loan Fund, New Hamp-
shire Legal Assistance (a low-income, legal-
services organization), and other nonprofits, 
they made their own offer for the park and 
ultimately  launched  the  Souhegan  Valley 
Manufactured Housing Cooperative. 
“Not only did we do it,” says Quast, “but 
20 years later the co-op is still working.”  
 
A  Growing Trend,  Rooted  in 
New Hampshire
Today the trend for owners of manufactured 
housing to purchase their communities (no 
longer called trailer parks) has accelerated, as 
has the quality and resale value of the homes 
themselves, providing a viable alternative in 
costly housing markets. 
When  the  Loan  Fund  organized  and 
made its first loan to the Meredith Village 
Cooperative  in  1984,  a  new  movement 
began. Though slow to start, the movement to 
preserve manufactured-housing communities 
by  converting  them  to  resident  ownership 
has been picking up steam. 
The  Loan  Fund  converted  57  parks 
by  2002.1  Since  then,  the  number  of 
resident-owned  communities  (ROCs)  of 
manufactured homes in New Hampshire has 
increased from 57 to 82—and the number 
of households in ROCs went from 2,803 
to 4,143.At the same time, resident-owned 
communities as a share of the total number 
of  manufactured-housing  communities  in 
New Hampshire rose from 12 percent to 
nearly 18 percent. The change is due in part 
to lenders’ positive repayment experience, 
which has increased their comfort with the 
creditworthiness of ROCs.  
As  Claira  Monier,  executive  director 
of New Hampshire Housing (NHH), the 
state’s  housing  finance  authority,  says, 
“We  were  able  to  show  that  lending  to 
cooperatives was a good investment, that 
it  made  financial  sense  for  conventional 
banks  to  participate.”  Since  the  early 
1990s,  the  debt  packages  that  have 
financed  most  of  the  homeowner-led 
community purchases in New Hampshire 
have  come  not  only  from  nonprofits 
such as the New Hampshire Community 
Loan Fund, but also from private banks.2  
Two-Tiered Approach
In  2003,  the  Loan  Fund  and  NHH  also 
started  doing  single-family  financing  for 
manufactured  homes  in  ROCs.  By  the 
end of 2005, in a real sign of progress, 42 
percent of homebuyers who financed their 
home purchase in a ROC were able to ob-
tain a mortgage equal to one for a site-built 
home on an individually owned lot. 
Owning the land plus obtaining single-
family financing for manufactured homes 
is  fairly  new.  This  two-layered,  market-
based approach has resulted in significant 
economic benefits for low- and moderate-
income people. 
In  2005,  the  University  of  New 
Hampshire’s  Carsey  Institute  studied  data 
on  manufactured  homes  in  eight  New 
Hampshire towns. The Institute took sales 
data  from  investor-owned  communities 
(communities where the residents owned only 
their unit and not the land or the community 
infrastructure) and compared them with sales 
data from resident-owned communities. 
In  the  one-year  period  between 
September  2004  and  September  2005, 
homes in the ROCs sold more quickly, taking 
60 days to sell on average instead of the 83 
days in investor-owned communities—and 
for  more  per  square  foot  ($6.50,  or  12 
percent more). The study also found that, 
after 10 years of being part-owners of the 
community, homeowners who paid carrying 
charges for their lots in ROCs were able to 
pay an average of $40 per month less than 
homeowners  who  rented  in  traditional, 
investor-owned communities. 
Today  the  Loan  Fund’s  two-layered 
approach is becoming the basis for a national 
effort to support owners of manufactured 
homes  who  want  to  control  their  land 
rents,  improve  their  neighborhood,  and 
build a secure homeownership asset. 
A  multifaceted  system  of  support  is 
important. According to Jerry Rioux, who 
has  been  converting  manufactured-home 
communities to cooperatives in California 
for  25  years,  New  Hampshire  is  unique. 
“What New Hampshire has done, unlike 
any  other  state  where  there  are  resident-
ownership  conversion  services,  is  create  a 
support system of leadership development, 
training, and home financing.” 
 
Across New England
To  support  the  ownership  movement,  the 
Loan Fund established ROC USA in 2006. 
The Meredith Institute, ROC USA’s training 
division, was launched in 2005 to accommo-
date groups and individuals interested in the 
New Hampshire system, By November 2006, 
34 people from 17 states were converging on 
the institute to gain knowledge of successful 
manufactured-housing  community  conver-
sions. Among states that have sent represen-
tatives to trainings are Massachusetts, Rhode 
Island, Maine, and Vermont. 
 
Rhode Island
Rhode Island has shown strong interest in 
resident-owned communities. The Statewide 
Planning Council, for example, in its 2006 
Five-Year Strategic Housing Plan, called for 
technical assistance and fund-raising for in-
frastructure improvements and for organiz-
ing homeowners to purchase their communi-
ties.3 The homeowners have a statute granting 
them a right of first refusal that creates the 
opportunity for purchase, but only if the cur-
rent owner plans to sell or lease the land to 
someone who will change the use of the land 
from a manufactured-home community. 
Rhode  Island  has  46  licensed 
manufactured-home  communities,  10 
of  which  are  resident-owned.  Support 
has  been  critical.  ROCs  in  Newport  and 
Newport  County,  for  example,  were 
assisted  by  two  groups.  One  was  the 
Community Development Consortium, an 
East  Greenwich-based  partnership  among 
smaller  community  development  block 
grant  communities  that  collaborate  on 
housing  and  community  development  in 
Washington County. The other was Church 
Community  Housing  Corporation,  a 
Newport-based, countywide housing agency.   
Since the early 1990s, 
the debt packages  
that have financed 
most homeowner-led 
community  
purchases in New 
Hampshire have come 
not only from nonprof-
its but also from  
private banks.Communities & Banking    3
Maine
In Maine, interest in resident-owned com-
munities has increased significantly of late. 
Requests for more information have come 
from  those  who  specialize  in  cooperatives, 
as  well  as  from  municipal  officials,  com-
munity  development  lenders  (such  as  the 
Damariscotta-based  Genesis  Community 
Loan Fund), and community development 
corporations. 
At  a  September  2006  conference  on 
cooperative  enterprise  held  in  Bangor, 
Terry Lewis, vice president of the National 
Co-op Bank and former executive director 
of  the  National  Association  of  Housing 
Cooperatives,  generated  interest  with  a 
description of the New Hampshire model. 
Also, the Genesis Community Loan Fund 
began working with the town of Fort Kent to 
help residents convert a 16-unit manufactured-
home park under threat of closure to resident 
ownership. And it is advising legislators on 
amending  Maine  statutes  to  require  that 
owners of manufactured-home parks notify 
the state housing finance agency of intent to 
sell—a small but important step to make the 
market more transparent.
 
Vermont
In Vermont, there are a few resident-owned 
communities, although the primary meth-
od of preserving manufactured-home com-
munities  has  been  nonprofit  ownership. 
The  nonprofits  welcome  homeowner  as-
sociations’ input but manage the commu-
nities themselves; individuals have a land-
lord-tenant, leased-land relationship. Dawn 
Moskowitz of Opportunities Credit Union 
reports that homeowners in Vermont’s in-
vestor-owned  manufactured-home  com-
munities are starting to express interest in 
resident ownership. 
In  April  2006,  the  Vermont 
Governor’s Commission on Manufactured 
Housing  released  a  report  that  included 
recommendations  supporting  resident 
ownership. In the 2006 legislative session, 
a statute was passed to make it easier for 
residents to pursue cooperative ownership. 
 
Massachusetts
In Massachusetts, Gardner-based RCAP So-
lutions Inc. has been concerned that owners 
of manufactured-home parks face pressure 
to  sell  to  change-of-use  developers.  The 
pressure has come as land values, the cost 
of upkeep, and environmental enforcement 
have increased. So the nonprofit is develop-
ing a manufactured-housing-park program 
for  “sustaining  and  increasing  the  inven-
tory of affordable housing” and “maximiz-
ing local neighborhood excellence through 
neighborhood revitalization.”4 Its goal is to 
protect assets and create wealth among low- 
and  moderate-income  state  residents  who 
live in the parks. 
RCAP  has  relevant  experience 
improving  rural  and  environmental 
infrastructure,  and  helping  homeowners 
acquire the financing and know-how they 
need  to  make  land  improvements  once 
they have gained ownership. The Meredith 
Institute  and  its  partner  “I’m  Home”  (a 
program  of  Washington-based  nonprofit 
CFED) are currently working with RCAP 
to  make  the  investment  necessary  for  a 
thriving market-based ROC program.5 
As RCAP Vice President of Real Estate 
Services  Paul  Teixeira  observes,  “Lenders 
and others need to get away from the stigma 
surrounding manufactured housing and see 
that there is an opportunity to create real 
homeownership opportunities and get away 
from  subsidized  rental  situations.”  RCAP 
Director of Communications Skip Moskey, 
adds, “This is not just a social good, but a 
business opportunity.” 
Manufactured  housing  is  one  of  the 
largest  sources  of  unsubsidized  affordable 
housing anywhere. The giant steps that have 
been taken to improve the quality of that 
housing  while  protecting  and  enhancing 
the  homeownership  asset  of  low-income 
families through their own sweat equity is 
only the beginning. 
Cheryl A. Sessions Esq. is in-house counsel 
and director of policy and development at the 
ROC USA, a program of the New Hampshire 
Community  Loan  Fund  in  Concord,  New 
Hampshire. 
 
Endnotes
1 See Paul Bradley, Communities & Banking, fall 2002, 
http://www.bos.frb.org/commdev/c&b/c&b back.htm. 
2 In addition, public agencies—primarily HUD and 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture—have provided 
substantial sums to rehabilitate communities that were 
experiencing health and safety risks as a result of failing 
infrastructure.
3 See http://www.planning.ri.gov/housing/shp06.pdf.
4  See  http://www.rcapsolutions.org  manufactured 
_housing.htm.
5 See http://www.cfed.org/focus.m?parentid=314&site
id=317&id=317.
Owners of manufactured homes in resident-owned communities generally enjoy increased security and 
higher resale value than homeowners in investor-owned parks.
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Manufactured housing comes of age: a support network for resident-owned communities

http://www.bostonfed.org/commdev/c&b/2007/summer/Sessions_Manufactured_Housing.pdf

Manufactured housing comes of age: a support network for resident-owned communities

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