Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/60637
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE By Craig Welch People frommore than 5,600 NewHampshire households, most of them low-income, have created affordable housing for themselves. Quite an accomplishment, wouldn't you say? The strategy they've used takes courage, faith in the future, and faith in themselves. But it re- sults in housing that is stable and safe, and that helps them save money and build assets. It also results in improved neighborhoods and greater civic participation. And it generates property tax dollars for each of the 64 towns and cities where it is located. They're called resident-ownedmanufactured- housing communities, and earlier this month, a community in Derry became New Hampshire's 100th . New Hampshire's first resident-owned com- munity was created in Meredith in 1984. The elderly owners of a 13-home trailer park needed to sell it because they couldn't keep up with the maintenance.At the time, real estate prices near Lake Winnipesaukee were sky-high as land was snapped up for condos and vacation homes. The park's long-time residents knew exactly what would happen if it was sold. "Most of us just figured we'd be thrown out, so we were looking for solutions – moving, buying something else, renting somewhere, just hang- ing in and hoping for the best," one resident told a reporter. A couple of residents looked into buying the park themselves, but they didn't have the per- sonal credit, or down payment, for a loan. Re- membering there's strength in numbers, they organized the other residents into a cooperative and approached the banks as a group. The banks still weren't persuaded. Three said they wouldn't lend to a cooperative. Two said that even as a cooperative, the families didn't have sufficient credit. Then there was the group's total lack of management experience, TheMeredith fam- ilies had the purpose. The Sisters had the money. And the Community Loan Fund figured out how to get the deal done. It would be 2½ years before the next park in N.H. con- verted to resident ownership, but then the idea concept ex- ploded. Thirty-five parks converted in the next 10 years, and 46 in the decade after that. In 27 years, not one of these commu- nities has failed. Not one has been sold back to an outside No. 12 on Get It Quick Page APRIL 2012 19 THE JOURNAL commentary company or investor. Through the years, trailers evolved into mo- low incomes, and a leaky septic system that needed costly repairs. Few lenders thought that a newly formed group of volunteers could manage such an enterprise without bankrupting it. But over the past 27 years, they've proven otherwise. The Meredith group had been assisted by a graduate student who needed a community de- velopment project to complete her master's de- gree. Her professors connected her with a brand-new organization, the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. The Community Loan Fund connected with the Sisters of Mercy, who wanted to put the money in their retire- ment fund to use for a good purpose. This project was the perfect fit. bile homes, which became today's not-so- mobile manufactured homes. Today's manufactured homes are built in factories to fed- eral standards, are set on pads and foundations that are built to last, and cost very little to live in. These quality homes have become an impor- tant source of housing for young families, down- sizing seniors and families with low incomes. Inmany rural communities where rental apart- ments are scarce, manufactured homes are the best, and often the only, affordable housing. Although some resident cooperatives buy their communities to avoid displacement, as did the Meredith residents, most want control the fees they pay to rent their lots (most residents inman- ufactured housing parks own their homes, but rent the land beneath them). Some also want to repair aging roads, electric or water systems. The residents of Foxy Terrace Cooperative in Derry worked for five years, \ 21