As a member of the Animas View Mobile Home Park Co-op, I would like to take this opportunity to extend heartfelt thanks to Durango City Council for voting to loan us $500,000 toward our efforts to secure and improve low-income housing in our fair city. The cooperative, consisting of 116 mobile home resident-owners, is happily approaching the closing date to purchase the park later this month, after several months of hard work, sweat and tears.

The money that council has approved will help alleviate lot rents and for this we are grateful. This is a historic move for our city and in the state of Colorado. Cooperatives like ours exist across the country, but Animas View Mobile Home Park Co-op is one of the first of a handful in the state to achieve ownership, especially at the large scale of over 100 households.

Our fabulous partners and mentors in this effort are Thistle/ROC USA who made it all possible. They will continue to mentor us as we move forward and for this we are grateful. I would also like to extend thanks to The Durango Herald staff and editors for covering our efforts and writing encouraging articles and editorials about our journey. We are very proud of our accomplishment and glad to share our progress with the community.

For everyone reading this, we no longer call ourselves “River View.” Those signs are coming down and will be replaced. We are the Animas View Mobile Home Park Cooperative.

Sue Hinkle

Durango