People look out for each other at the Grand Meadow Manufactured Home community in Longmont, a long-time resident said recently.
They look in on the 91-year-old woman who lives by herself but refuses to give up her last shred of independence by asking her neighbors for help doing her chores. Others, well into their retirement years, get together on front porches to exchange gossip and do small repairs on each other’s trailers.
“It’s a pretty close knit group,” the resident said. She asked that her name not be used for fear she would get into trouble with the Grand Meadow management. “Most are over 70 and many are struggling.”
They worry about the annual rent they have to pay on the lots where they live, the woman said, which can top out at over $800. Most own their homes and a few pay rent.
All are sure they can’t leave Grand Meadow since they cannot afford rent or mortgage on conventional homes and apartments in Longmont, she said.
“They know, this is the only place they can afford to live and for many this is the last place they will live,” the woman said.
Proposed legislation seeks to protect people in Grand Meadow and other mobile home park residents in Colorado by blocking a landlord from increasing rent on a mobile home lot by an amount that exceeds the greater of inflation or three percentage points in any 12-month period.
The bill - HB-1287 - also requires the landlord or the landlord’s representative to attend up to two public meetings for residents of the park each year at the request of the residents. The new law, if passed, would clarify that a landlord is responsible for the cost of repairing any damage to a mobile home or lot that results from the landlord’s failure to maintain the premises of the park.
The City Council this week is being asked to support HB-1287 because it matches the council’s priorities to ensure affordable housing and that vulnerable populations are protected, said assistant city manager Sandi Seader in her report to the council.
A 2016 study found that 770 mobile homes existed in Longmont and no new mobile homes have been built since then, said Molly O’Donnell, the city’s housing and community investment division director in an email.
A 2020 estimate found that the total number of housing units in Longmont is 40,058, which puts the estimate of mobile homes in the city at 1.9%, O’Donnell said.
Mobile homes are generally considered to contribute to affordable housing stock in a community, O’Donnell said, but they are not counted and tracked as part of the affordable housing inventory since they are not deed restricted as affordable.
Still, mobile home communities have become the most reasonable option for poor and working close communities across the country, including Longmont, said Tawny Peyton, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Home Association, which represents the manufactured home industry in Colorado.
“Manufactured homes are very affordable for working families in nearly every community, especially when you compare monthly expenses for other homes,” Peyton said.
Almost 98,000 Coloradans live in manufactured or mobile homes whose prices are 10% to 30% less per square foot than homes built on site, Peyton said.
In Longmont - where city officials are grappling with adding affordable and attainable housing to the local market - the difference in pricing is stark.
The median list price for a home in Longmont is $502,800, according to Homes.Com. Meanwhile, a three-bedroom, two bathroom manufactured home at Grand Meadow was recently listed at $41,100.
“That is the big reason more people are looking to manufactured homes for long-term affordability,” Peyton said.
She adds, however, that the mobile home protection legislation will actually reduce affordable housing in Colorado. “We just find the whole concept of rent control not economically feasible,” said Peyton, who testified against the bill last week.
Forcing rent below market rates impedes park owners’ from operating and making improvements. The average increase in rent is 3.5%; currently, inflation is 7.5%.
“Current law limits rent raises to once per year,” Peyton said, “If park owners cannot raise rents in line with inflation, they are unable to respond to urgent needs like critical infrastructure repairs.”
“This bill, if passed,” she said, “will discourage any more manufactured home development and that will hurt families who need affordable places to live.”
