As of late, local mobile home communities have increasingly come under pressure as park owners list properties, such as Mountain Valley, Aspen-Basalt and Mountain mobile home parks, for sale. The latter, located in West Glenwood, was recently listed for $4.5 million and the City expeditiously committed $1.5 million from its 2C workforce housing fund to aid residents in purchasing the land themselves. Mountain Valley and Aspen-Basalt mobile home parks, located in unincorporated Garfield and Eagle counties, respectively, were originally priced at $42 million combined — a much steeper hill to climb. Both are owned by Investment Property Group.
The fear of displacement among mobile home park residents has, perhaps, been somewhat assuaged by Colorado laws favorable to those communities and at least one local success story — albeit still in the midst of its own narrative.
Since Three Mile Mobile Home Park was purchased from the previous owners, the Krueger family, by the Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation (RFCDC), a nonprofit and former arm of MANAUS, in 2023, it’s kept on track to transition ownership, as planned, to the residents of the park.
“It’s actually kind of funny because when we were growing up … we always talked about how we would love to own the park,” Gabby Jimenez, age 24 and a lifetime resident of the park, told The Sopris Sun — an elusive idea she and her siblings entertained as kids.
Since RFCDC bought the park as the interim landlord, community leaders there have made sure every step of the way that the train stays on the rails. Back in October, Jimenez, who is also the secretary of the park’s resident leadership committee, along with her neighbors implored the Garfield County Commissioners to opt into Proposition 123, a measure passed by Colorado voters in 2022 designating tax dollars for affordable housing projects. Because the commissioners agreed to do so, RFCDC was able to apply for a grant — which was just approved on May 13 — from the State Housing Board for $935,000.
The Proposition 123 grant was also contingent on whether or not a floodplain development permit would be approved by the commissioners, which it was in late April. The funding will go towards a “major modernization of the infrastructure at the Three Mile Mobile Home Park,” said Kelly McNicholas Kury, executive director of RFCDC, including: floodplain mitigation and bank stabilization along Three Mile Creek, replacing vehicle pedestrian bridges and water and sewage systems upgrades.
And it’s been a long time coming. Jimenez recalled helping her dad stack sandbags along the creekbank to prepare for flood season when she was a youngster.
The park also received a $671,000 grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board that will go toward flood mitigation and creekbank stabilization. But they’re still shy of covering the $2.3 million estimated cost and working to fill the approximate $500,000 gap.
“If we don’t fully fundraise the $2.3 million, we’ll have to reduce the scope of work that we hope to do,” explained Kury. “That would be our preference, rather than increasing the residents’ costs to cover it.”
The project is part of the larger end-goal of resident ownership because, as explained by Kury, the improved infrastructure will make the park that much more appealing to a lender when the time comes.
Originally, RFDC secured a loan to purchase the park for $2.4 million through the Impact Development Fund, a nonprofit organization that funds affordable housing projects in Colorado at low interest rates. The rents collected by residents each month, $825 per lot, go toward paying off that loan. There is still $2.196 million due as of the beginning of May.
The resident leadership committee, appointed by Three Mile residents, takes part in community organizing and finance training. It had to register as a cooperative with the Secretary of State, open a bank account to collect HOA dues and write the rules and regulations for the park. “The goal is that they’re fully prepared to understand the budget and implement the rules and regulations when they’re the owners of the park,” said Kury.
Jimenez described the leadership committee as a “bridge” between RFCDC and the residents. The committee hosts community meetings every other month.
The goal is to transition ownership to the residents by the spring of 2028 — when the current loan term is due “to either refinance or sell,” said Kury. While they haven’t yet reached that phase, optimally, RFCDC and the residents will raise funds to buy down the purchase price.
Kury has met with residents at both the Mountain Valley and Aspen-Basalt mobile home parks, but the organization cannot commit to helping these larger communities in the same way it’s assisting Three Mile. She said that, ideally, under the community development corporation model, it would, but it comes down to capacity constraints. Kury herself is only a part-time employee.
“We’re really trying to make sure that Three Mile is a success and what our lessons learned are before taking on more,” she concluded.