Mini Mansions Mobile Home Park in Bayfield boasts some of the cheapest rent in La Plata County, averaging around $600 a month. That’s an unexpected disadvantage to residents scrambling to stop the property’s imminent sale.
The longtime owner put the 35-lot property on the market in early March for $4.2 million. The announcement of intent to sell sent residents searching for a way to prevent drastic rent increases that more often than not accompany a change in ownership.
Several entities have expressed interest in buying the park, but residents said they have a possible out.
Purchasing the property and forming a resident-owned community, or ROC, would allow residents to collectively own and manage the land beneath their homes. But residents only have until July 3 to submit an offer, and the drastically undermarket rent has made it seemingly impossible to secure the preliminary funding to make the purchase.
Windi Richardson, a mother of two teenagers, has lived at the park for 16 years. She originally chose it because it was one of the few affordable, stable and conveniently located housing options for her family. It is the only home her children have ever known.
She said lenders have told residents current rents are too low to provide assurance residents can absorb rent increases necessary to support a loan for a park-wide purchase.
Carter Little, a Fort Lewis College student in his late 20s pursuing a degree in chemistry, moved to Mini Mansions after his family bought him a mobile home as a long-term investment – a family tradition. The park was the most affordable place he could find for the mobile home while paying for school and trying to avoid taking on significant debt.
He said he values the sense of community among residents, and now that he’s finished his spring semester, he has time to join Richardson on a last-minute frenzy to secure funding.
Little said the recent success of Pine River Shares when it raised $600,000 in 70 days to fund the purchase of its building gives him hope for the Mini Mansions community.
His next step will be reaching out to business owners of places that employ park residents such as Marathon Gas Station.
“When half your workforce lives someplace, and that’s all they can afford (and) you’re going to lose your employees who work for basically nothing, why wouldn’t you want to help their community maintain rent that’s affordable for your employees?” he said. “That way, you can continue paying them, you know, practically nothing.”
In recent years, community-owned mobile home parks have become increasingly common in Colorado and across the country. The trend accelerated after Colorado’s Mobile Home Park Act established a 120-day opportunity period that allows residents to organize and submit an offer before a sale is finalized.
Other mobile home park communities in La Plata County have successfully purchased their parks to prevent their sales to other businesses too. Hermosa Mobile Home Village north of Durango finalized the purchase of that property in March. In 2023, Westside Mobile Home Park residents accomplished the same.
Thistle ROC, a Colorado nonprofit that helps residents purchase and manage community-owned mobile home parks, played a key role in the formation of resident-owned cooperatives at both Hermosa and Westside.
Richardson said, however, that Thistle has not committed to helping Mini Mansions move forward unless residents can first secure funding that would offset the rent increases needed to make a purchase financially feasible.
She said Thistle estimated that the seller would need to accept an offer of roughly $3.2 million – about 70% of the current asking price – and residents would need to secure approximately $1.5 million in subsidies to keep rents at an affordable level while supporting loan payments.
Because Mini Mansions’ rents are substantially below the state average, even significant subsidies would likely not prevent rent increases under a cooperative ownership model.
Richardson said she has carried much of the organizing effort herself, despite broad support from residents. A planning committee eventually dissolved, leaving most of the work to her and one neighbor.
The Colorado Department of Local Affairs could have covered about 15% of the loan amount through one of its programs, Richardson said, but residents missed the agency’s June 15 application deadline.
Even if they had entered into an agreement with Thistle a month earlier, Richardson said she was told there still would not have been enough time to complete the engineering report required for the application.
Now, she worries Mini Mansions could join a growing list of mobile home parks that explored resident ownership but ultimately failed to complete the transition.
Worst case scenario, Richardson said, the landlord told her they’ll try to find a buyer who is “less corporation like” and more of a “passive income” owner, in hopes rent remains roughly the same.
Mini Mansions residents like Richardson and Little still have hope the community can meet the July 3 deadline.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
