CHFA helps mobile-home park move to co-op ownership

LONGMONT — The Colorado Housing and Finance Authority has partnered with the ROC USA Capital and Impact Development Fund to turn ownership of a mobile-home park in Longmont over to the residents of the park.

The Longmont Mobile Home Community park has now been converted to a resident-owned cooperative, which eliminates the risk of displacement that occurs when the land under mobile-home parks changes hands on the free market.

“When the opportunity came up for us to buy the community, it was pretty exciting,” Mike King, resident and LMP Co-op’s board president, said in a statement. “We own it and are able to set the lot rent based upon an actual budget. We did it.”

CHFA made a $1.19 million purchase for participation in an existing acquisition loan made by ROC USA Capital. Impact Development Fund purchased a $1.34 million participation interest in the loan. ROC USA Capital remains the loan servicer. The loan was used by the Longmont MHC’s homeowner cooperative to purchase the community’s land.

The city of Longmont also supported the transaction with a no-interest, deferred-payment, $300,000 loan from its Affordable Housing Fund.

“We congratulate the Longmont MHC homeowners on their tremendous accomplishment. They’ve worked hard to ensure their long-term housing stability. Manufactured-home  communities are an important naturally occurring affordable housing option for Coloradans and CHFA is proud to play a role in this preservation effort,” said Cris White, CHFA executive  director and CEO.

While this type of affordable-housing finance may be emerging in Colorado, it’s a proven model in multiple states across the United States, with ROC USA and its nine other affiliates having helped nearly 250 manufactured-home communities become successfully resident-owned and managed, preserving nearly 17,000 homes in the process.

“ROC USA Capital is pleased to partner with Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, Impact Development Fund and the city of Longmont, key affordable housing financial institutions in Colorado, to jointly finance the acquisition of the 36-site LMP Co-op in Longmont on behalf of the homeowners,” said Michael Sloss, managing director of ROC USA Capital, a U.S. Department of Treasury-certified Community Development Financial Institution and wholly owned subsidiary of ROC USA, LLC. “Such financing partnerships with state and local community development lenders are fundamental to both financing the first ROCs in a new state and building a long-term financing system to serve homeowners in ROCs over time. We look forward to helping many more homeowners in Colorado in the years to come.”

Thistle Communities, ROC USA Network’s affiliate in Colorado, provides technical assistance  for board training, loan compliance, and community development. Longmont MHC worked with Thistle through the purchase process and will continue to do so for at least the next decade.