To save affordable housing, states promote resident-owned mobile home parks

WindowDressers mobilizes community volunteers to build low-cost insulating window inserts for older homes. Their efforts have saved nearly 4 million gallons of heating fuel, preventing 44,000 tons of CO2 emissions, and strengthening neighborhood ties while making heating more affordable—especially for low-income households who now represent nearly 40% of recipients.

Kaua'i County Housing Agency uses a community engagement model for its master-planned affordable housing developments, involving community advisory committees, multiple public meetings, surveys, and online tools that allow residents to shape key housing and community decisions. The agency has applied this model for over a decade, with great results, including Lima Ola, a 550-unit workforce housing community.

Sacramento, California, is increasing the number of affordable housing units built in the city by implementing deed restrictions that limit prices and require occupancy by low-income residents, providing free permit-ready building plans for accessory dwelling units, and prioritizing quick approvals by the city government.

After an earthquake devastated the town of Düzce, Turkey, residents banded together to create a housing cooperative and later Düzce Hope Studio, a group of pro-bono architects and engineers working to help rebuild the town. What makes the building team unique is that the design process included and valued residents’ voices. Yaşar Adanah, an urban researcher, states, “What’s happening in Düzce is a rare example of a holistic approach to housing that can be a model for other neighborhoods.”

At the worst point in the 2008 housing crisis, up to 30,000 houses in Cuyahoga County were vacant. The Cuyahoga County Land Bank aims to fix this problem by acquiring houses, eliminating blight, and transforming the houses into more useful spaces. Already, the Land Bank has turned old, empty properties into a Children’s Museum and an Amazon Fulfillment Center, and it has decreased the number of empty homes to about 7,000.

In the 1960s, Uruguay created a cooperative housing policy designed to help ease housing shortages especially among lower- and middle-class residents, with cooperative projects bolstered by state loans and technical support. The country now counts over 70,000 co-op-owned homes, making up roughly 5 percent of the housing stock.

At worker-owned cooperatives such as Cal Solar, a California-based solar company, the worker-owners shape company policies and report a greater sense of accountability, comraderie, and more resilience in the face of industry challenges, compared to their non-cooperative model peers.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development offers funding for affordable housing properties to retrofit their buildings to be more resilient to climate change and improve resident’s quality of life. The funding ensures the properties remain as affordable housing because these upgrades typically reduce bills and because property owners must agree to keep rent affordable for 25 years.

In 2008, ROC USA began helping form resident-owned mobile home communities, and since then has assisted in the creation of over 300 such communities in 21 states throughout the U.S, consisting of almost 22,000 homeowners throughout the U.S. The organization works with philanthropic organizations, other nonprofits, insurers, banks and government entities to raise commitments in advance of a park’s purchase.

The Kensington Corridor Trust acquires properties along three blocks in its Philadelphia neighborhood to give the community agency and control over how that real estate is used, with an emphasis on keeping housing affordable. The trust has acquired 16 properties so far and has signed its first commercial tenant, providing space for a local business owner.