Glenwood Springs mobile home park sold to residents in $4.5 million deal

Residents of the Glen Valley Cooperative, formerly known as Mountain Mobile Home Park, now own the land beneath their homes after completing a $4.5 million deal that turned them into Colorado’s 13th Resident-Owned Community (ROC).

The acquisition, finalized Aug. 20, gives residents control over the community’s financial future and the right to vote on decisions such as lot fees and park bylaws.

The community began the purchase process in February after learning that the 40-unit park, located along U.S. Highway 6 near Bighorn Toyota, would soon be put up for sale, according to an Aug. 20 news release from Thistle-ROC. Residents were guided through the process by Thistle, a Boulder-based nonprofit that specializes in affordable housing and serves as a certified technical assistance provider for ROC USA.

Founded in 1985, Thistle develops, manages and protects affordable housing across Colorado. Through its partnership with ROC USA — a national nonprofit that has helped more than 340 communities transition to resident ownership — Thistle supports communities with both financial and technical assistance.

After contacting Thistle, residents of the former Mountain Mobile Home Park formed a cooperative. Under Colorado’s Mobile Home Park Residents Opportunity to Purchase law, residents have 90 days to submit an offer after receiving notice of a pending sale or land use change. Offers can be made by associations representing more than half of homeowners.

“In my opinion the cooperative model is different from most housing models we see these days or individual models,” said Elizabeth Chaney, Thistle’s ROC portfolio impact manager for the Front Range. “It requires folks that often don’t know each other to come together, to work as a community, to find shared goals, despite disagreements, and really work together toward the shared goal of owning their land and running their community.”

Chaney said becoming a ROC also helps protect residents from unfair evictions and steep rent increases.

“As the land in Colorado becomes more valuable, folks that live in manufactured home communities are often most at risk since Colorado does not have a rent cap,” she said.

More than 75% of the community attended the first meeting with Thistle, and an “overwhelming majority” of residents voted to start the process, according to Chaney.

The steps included forming a board of directors, conducting on-site inspections, establishing bylaws and raising enough money to purchase the park.

In May, Glenwood Springs committed $1.5 million to support the effort. Thistle contributed an $80,000 grant, and additional funds were loaned to the Glen Valley Cooperative by ROC USA Capital, a community development financial institution.

On Aug. 20, the cooperative closed on the $4.5 million purchase, officially taking ownership.

“Becoming a ROC allows us the affordability to continue living in a great community,” Bobby Sanderson, Glen Valley Cooperative secretary, said in the release. “Knowing that it is Resident-Owned, we no longer have to feel anxiety over the yearly rent increases or, even worse, waking up to the news the park sold and everyone has to vacate. We all owe a big ‘thank you’ to Thistle ROC, ROC USA and all their vendors who spent countless hours working to make this dream become a reality.”

Thistle will continue providing technical support for the duration of the cooperative’s 10-year purchase loan.

“We know that Colorado is becoming increasingly unaffordable and that it’s not an issue of lack of housing, it’s an issue of lack of affordable housing,” Chaney said. “So to be able to play even a small role in maintaining this essential stock of affordable housing … it’s a privilege.

“It’s an honor to be able to work with folks like the residents of the former Mountain Mobile Home Park. The board is entirely volunteer led, and they work really hard to secure their own futures in an increasingly volatile housing landscape,” she said.