Residents of mobile-home communities are being evicted and forced to move their homes to make way for new developments, often of a few, very expensive homes. More than 12 manufactured-home parks have closed since 2002, displacing hundreds of long-term residents.
So what? Doesn't new development mean we have strong, growing communities? Don't upscale residential developments mean our economy is robust?
It may mean all of these things. It also means that our communities are becoming restricted to a narrow economic group and our neighborhoods offer fewer choices in price and type of homes available. It also means that government entities and community groups are scrambling to ease the very real crisis facing residents of mobile home parks.
Many of these manufactured-home owners have lived in their community for decades. Many are the retired workforce that helped bring our community to the place it is today. Most do not have up to $20,000 required to move a home and properly site it in a new community, assuming there is an available spot in another park.
Cities and nonprofit groups are trying to help families survive this transition. State, county and city funds have been committed to help families move to a new park or a completely different housing type than the one they chose. Private individuals have donated as well.
The rub in this whole process is that homeowners and neighbors in our community are being forced to give up their neighborhoods and preferred home type. Money spent to help relocate people may be wasted since other parks are also at risk of being closed.
Public funds would better be used to help stabilize and preserve housing opportunities. The strength of our neighborhoods and communities is in the diversity and abundance of choices in housing that fits our individual needs and budgets. A broad spectrum of housing from rentals, condominiums, manufactured homes and site-built homes in various price ranges are essential to community health.
Manufactured homes can form permanent, resident-controlled neighborhoods that are appreciating assets to our community patchwork. Many attractive parks have had a place in our valley for years.
But manufactured-home communities are easy targets. There is usually one landowner. A developer doesn't have to clear the land or, in most cases, remove homes that are on the property. Individual owners have to move their own homes.
The landlord/owner gives residents 90 days notice and waits to consummate the sale. The scenario has played out several times recently.
Efforts are under way to provide a broad range of housing choices. As part of that effort, local and state governments should look at existing laws that encourage development but have the effect of reducing diversity, housing choice and affordability.
They should enact ordinances that encourage a long-term, mutually beneficial relationships between manufactured-home park owners and homeowners. They should create incentives for cooperatively owned manufactured-housing communities and a wide range of housing choices at various price levels.
A diverse spectrum of housing opportunities will strengthen our neighborhoods and economic future.
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* MARK H. LUNDGREN is project manager of Utah Resident Owned Communities, a project of Crossroads Urban Center to expand choice and affordability in housing.
