DENVER — When Capitol City Mobile Home Park in Westwood went up for sale in July 2022, residents were scared. The threat of redevelopment or a new owner could have priced them out of their homes, putting them at-risk for displacement with no other affordable options.
So, the residents decided they would all become the new owner, together. They just needed to secure $11.5 million to purchase the park themselves. Then, they could create a cooperative or land trust, a mobile home park owned by the community.
>The video above is from May when Westwood residents were raising money to buy their mobile home park
After more than a year of organizing, residents finally have a signed contract with the current owner of the mobile home park, thus protecting their homes. Once residents started to become confident they would eventually own the park, they renamed it "Monte Vista."
"We hope that this will be a blueprint for the future of other parks to use," said Andrea Chiriboga-Flor, executive director of Justice for the People Legal Center.
Chiriboga-Flor said Sharing Connexion will be the interim owner of the mobile home park for up to three years. Sharing Connexion will hold the mortgage, the loans, and the payments for the mobile home park, until residents are ready to take it over themselves.
She said residents will receive a $2.6 million loan from the city through the Department of Housing Stability (HOST). They hope to apply for another $2.6 million loan from the State, when applications open up in November. Chiriboga-Flor said the rest of their funding is coming from other lenders who they have commitments from.
Next, residents will begin working on what their cooperative or land trust model looks like. Chiriboga-Flor said they also want to continue working with the city to create mobile home friendly policies that would protect communities and residents under threat of gentrification or redevelopment.
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