DENVER — Residents in Westwood are celebrating now that they know they won't be pushed out of their homes.
One of the last mobile home parks in the Denver metro, Capitol City, went up for sale last year. The price tag was $11.5 million.
With hardly any other affordable options for housing, neighbors there organized to purchase the land themselves.
"Well, you see people are happier, they seem more happy," said Elsa Olivia Balderrama Lujan.
Lujan was making plans to move in with her daughter in Thornton if the mobile home park had been sold to a developer.
"My neighbors were very worried," she said. "You could see that they were sad."
On April 19th, residents of the mobile home park received a 120-day notice from the owner of the park. It was essentially a warning, letting them know someone else intended to buy it. That's when neighbors started to take action.
Andrea Chiriboga-Flor with the Justice for People Legal Center has been helping residents organize since the park went up for sale.
"Unfortunately, in this country, housing is not considered a basic human right," Chiriboga-Flor said. "Having collective ownership as an option is huge."
She said creating a cooperative or land trust puts land ownership in the hands of residents and prevents displacement while guaranteeing affordability and stability.
VER VÍDEO: Residentes del parque de casas móviles en Westwood se salvan del desalojo tras comprar el terreno
But to get this far, took years of work in the community and legislature.
"Particularly, a statute that's opportunity to purchase, which allows residents to have time before a landlord can sell to an outside buyer," said Chiriboga-Flor.
She said these new laws help preserve communities at-risk of gentrification.
It allowed residents to make their own offer to buy the park with help from a non-profit.
"Colorado is just an amazing place to call home," said Stefanie Fox with Sharing Connexion. "You shouldn't have to be at a certain income level to be able to call this place home."
She said Sharing Connexion will be the temporary owner of the park for the next couple years or until the residents are ready to take over.
“Let’s say 30 years down the road maybe there’s no debt on the property and they’ll just live in their homes, they’ll have that sense of ownership, they can improve their homes, they can replace their homes and do all that like a traditional homeowner would," said Fox.
Sharing Connexion will hold the mortgage, loans and payments for the mobile home park until residents are ready to take it over themselves. Fox said they're still fundraising and looking for low-interest grants or investments by foundations. She said they must complete the transaction in December but feel confident it will come together.
"It takes a village," said Fox. "We want the residents to be in the best place, in that 1-3 year period, so their payment is low and that they’re eventually going to pay that off and own the land free and clear hopefully one day."
Now that the contract has been signed, residents have renamed their community, Montevista.
Resident Víctor Ramón Gutiérrez said becoming owners will allow the community to improve and invest in the park, as well as their own units.
"It is the best, the best news that one can get because one knows that they will not remove us and we'll live more comfortably," said Gutiérrez.
Chiriboga-Flor said at least 100 mobile home parks have gone up for sale in Colorado over the last 3-4 years. She said only a small amount, around 10-12, of those parks are now owned by their communities.
The hope is communities like Montevista can be a model for other parks under similar threat of being bought out, in order to preserve affordable housing.
NOTE: Quotes from Elsa Olivia Balderrama Lujan and Víctor Ramón Gutiérrez were translated from Spanish to English by Laura Casillas.
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