Residents of Apache Mobile Home Park in west Durango put their dreams of forming a housing cooperative on hold after learning the park’s location on a federally designated flood plain disqualified them from receiving the loan needed to make an offer on the property.
“I’m pretty depressed over the whole thing,” said Natalie Going, a resident of Apache.
After being informed of the property owner’s intent to sell in November, the 48-lot community quickly mobilized to purchase the land and form a resident-owned community.
The process was slow, but residents eventually secured support from Thistle ROC – a nonprofit that helps mobile home park residents purchase their communities.
They were nearly there: 80% of the park’s residents had approved the co-op formation, paperwork had been submitted, fees were paid and a meeting was scheduled for April 30 to elect a board and begin the loan application process.
But that meeting never happened.
Because the park sits on a flood plain that insurers refuse to cover, the lender used by Thistle ROC declined to issue a loan.
Because it’s in a flood plain, the risk is too high to get the underwriting done on the loan, said Justin Holman, Thistle ROC senior manager.
“The lender looks at it like an asset, right? And so they need to ensure that the asset that they’re lending to is protected,” said Tim Townsend, program director for Thistle ROC.
Because the Federal Emergency Management Agency is responsible for flood plain designations, Holman said there aren’t many ways to circumvent the geographic restrictions.
Usually, if just one or two homes are in the flood plain, insurers may consider the risk small enough to provide coverage, Holman said.
And independent owners or companies can often work around flood plain concerns by purchasing the property with cash or using a private lender.
But in Apache’s case, the entire community lies within the flood plain, and the options available to wealthy, cash-rich companies aren’t available to residents.
Holman said unfavorable geography is a common problem for mobile home communities trying to maintain rent stability, both locally and across Colorado.
In 2022, residents of Westside Mobile Park – located along U.S. Highway 160, near Durango’s western city limits – ran into a similar obstacle when they tried to purchase their land.
Thistle ROC’s primary lender declined to fund the project because it did not meet underwriting requirements, forcing residents to pursue a different path to secure their homes.
Ultimately, Westside residents established a community land trust – in which the land is owned by a nonprofit organization instead of a traditional resident-owned community – allowing them to maintain the long-term affordability of their homes.
In Denver and other parts of the state, Thistle ROC has seen other resident groups face similar setbacks because of their location in flood plains.
These types of geographic roadblocks highlight a deeper problem with how mobile home parks have historically been developed and treated in terms of infrastructure and financing, Townsend said.
Mobile home parks began in the early 1900s as temporary housing for transient workers and evolved into a common form of affordable housing for lower-income residents.
But as those parks grew in popularity, many neighborhoods sought to block their development, driven by unfounded stereotypes linking mobile home communities to crime and poverty.
Restrictive zoning laws were enacted in cities and counties nationwide, pushing mobile home parks to the margins – often into flood zones or onto blighted land at the edges of town.
For Apache and other parks like it, those past decisions continue to carry serious consequences.
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And while Westside found a workaround, Apache’s future remains uncertain.
The 120-day window under the Mobile Home Park Act that allows residents to place an offer before a private sale occurs has expired, Going said.
The community has not had the time to reach out to Elevation Land Trust – the nonprofit that worked with Westside.
She said the only good news is that any buyer would likely be unable to change the property’s zoning – preventing them from evicting current tenants or removing their mobile homes.
Regardless, the sale will likely lead to rent increases, Going said, potentially pricing residents out of their homes – and maybe Durango.
“We’re pretty much screwed, really,” she said.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
