Photograph
Courtney Hendrix and her husband spent years scraping pennies collectively to save lots of sufficient to purchase their cell house. Now, the mother and father of three youngsters — quickly to be 4 — face an unsure future with their cell house park up on the market.
“It’s weighing heavy on us right now. It took every last bit of effort to afford our home,” Hendrix mentioned.
Hendrix lives at Colony Cellular Residence Park in Salmon Creek, which is among the many rising variety of parks being offered, typically to giant companies based mostly out of state. Residents of Woodland East and Vista Del Rio in east Vancouver had been unsuccessful in efforts to buy their properties.
Now, residents at Colony Cellular Residence Park are hoping to purchase their park. The 55-home park is house to single mother and father, younger adults making an attempt to interrupt into the housing market and older adults hoping to age in place.
In December, residents obtained an authorized letter informing them that their park was up on the market.
The sale follows the dying of the park’s proprietor, whose property has put the property in the marketplace with proceeds supposed to learn charity. California-based Group Basis for Monterey County, which has taken possession of the property, is overseeing the sale.
In response to a web-based itemizing, Colony Cellular Residence Park and Silver Shores, a manufactured house park in Everett, are being offered collectively, although potential consumers could place bids on simply one of many properties, mentioned Dan Baldwin, president and CEO of the Group Basis for Monterey County.
The properties are being offered via a bidding course of, with the deadline set for Friday.
Residents have fashioned Colony Cellular Group LLC and are working with ROC Northwest, an Olympia-based nonprofit that helps manufactured house communities buy their parks. The group is helping the residents in securing a roughly $14 million grant to assist their bid, resident Baer Dobson mentioned.
Residents are attempting to lift about $39 million, Dobson mentioned. The residents are additionally turning to the general public for assist via a GoFundMe website.
The sale comes after Senate Invoice 5198 went into impact in Washington in July 2023, granting cell house park residents the appropriate to buy their parks.
Park residents haven’t had a lot success. However Colony Cellular Residence Park residents mentioned they continue to be decided, regardless of obstacles, till the clock runs out.
Unaffordable future
Clark County manufactured house parks have turn into prime targets of funding corporations. Colony Cellular Residence Park residents concern the park might be offered to a developer intent on redeveloping the land into condominiums or different extra worthwhile housing.
The park is close to Skyview Excessive College, a brand new Dealer Joe’s and different developments.
“We are developer food,” mentioned Dobson, a single father who lives along with his teenage daughter and mom.
The Group Basis for Monterey County consulted brokers concerning the potential for redeveloping Colony Cellular Residence Park, however they didn’t assume that might pencil out, Baldwin mentioned.
“The new owners could make changes, but the idea of displacing the residents for a new development made no financial sense to any of the brokers,” Baldwin mentioned.
In response to a web-based property database, Colony Cellular Residence Park is zoned for medium-density residential housing, which incorporates choices reminiscent of single-family hooked up housing, low-rise residences and multifamily developments.
Residents are additionally involved {that a} new proprietor might increase rents. At the moment, most residents pay about $685 for the land on which the manufactured homes they personal sit. Dobson mentioned when he was knocking on doorways to assemble signatures to type the co-op, 15 households advised him they’d be displaced if rents had been raised even a bit bit.
“Seven of them would end up homeless,” Dobson mentioned.
No matter Colony Cellular Residence Park’s future, residents agree that its sale would deal a blow to inexpensive housing choices in Clark County.
“Is there even an American Dream anymore?” Hendrix mentioned. “This is such a stepping stone in whatever direction you are going with your life, whether you’re just starting out or people trying to slow down their life. It’s frustrating. It’s heartbreaking.”
