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One morning, Florence Quast arrived home from her job as an obstetrical nurse in Nashua to the uncommon sight of her neighbors assembled by the mailboxes in their manufactured home community. They anxiously shared some news.
"They said to me, 'We're going to have to move. They're going to sell the park to this developer and we're going to have to get out.' They asked me, 'Can they do that?'"
Quast didn't know, but before long she and the other 56 families in the Milford neighborhood paid $10 each to retain a lawyer. They engaged the Loan Fund, Legal Assistance and other non-profits to fight the owner and buy the park themselves.
They formed a cooperative and, after some legal wrangling, they made an offer to the owner of $1.5 million. He gave them ten days to come up with the money and close-on the day before New Year's Eve.
"We did it," said 69-year-old Quast, now retired, who became the cooperative's first president. "I think the owner was shocked that we'd come up with the money."
To make it happen, the Loan Fund provided a bridge loan until the Souhegan Valley Manufactured Housing Cooperative could get a $350,000 Community Development Block Grant.
"My proudest accomplishment is helping us become a co-op and buying the park because it's something people said we couldn't do," said Quast, who has traveled nationally to talk about cooperatives. "Not only did we do it, but 20 years later the co-op is still working. We are united so that anything that might affect this community, we make sure that we have a say in it."
When Peter Bartlett had a stroke in 1989, he and his wife Martha moved from their 12-room, 200-year-old colonial in Concord and into a three-bedroom manufactured home in the Pine Ridge Estates in Loudon.
“This house is built as well as any house we’ve lived in,” said Peter who has restored several old homes with his wife. “It has steel beams instead of wood beams and three-quarter inch sheetrock. None of it is flimsy.”
The Bartletts, both 67-years-old and retired, enjoyed the diverse neighborhood and liked the attentive park owner. Then in late 2001, they got a letter saying the owner was selling out to an investor.
“We couldn’t see someone from New York who knew nothing about New Hampshire or Loudon telling us what to do,” said Peter.
With only a 60-day window to match the investor’s
$4.1 million price, the tenants formed the Freedom Hill Co-op—New
Hampshire’s
50th Co-op.
In January 2002, the 148 residents closed on the deal and bought security and control.
“I get very excited about it,” said Peter who is a director on the co-op board. “The park is ours and we take pride in it.”
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In the late 1970s, Jack Lapham got a quick lesson in tenant rights.
“In my park in Boscawen, the owner gave us 54 days to get out. He did it in the name of a dollar bill. He wanted to build something else there,” said the retired police officer.
He had no choice. Lapham sold his home at an $8,000 loss and moved. He swore he’d never live in a manufactured housing park again.
But things change. In 2000, he and his wife moved into a 3-bedroom home in Breezy Acres Co-op in Epsom, NH.
“Unlike the other park I lived in, we own the land
here,” said Lapham. “If you own something, it’s
yours.”
In 1992, the tenants bought the park with loans from the Loan Fund, a bank and the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority. Faulty septic systems and other problems were fixed.
“Parks carry a stigma with them but if more people were exposed to parks like this one, they’d appreciate how nice and quiet it is,” he said. “This is a well-kept secret.”
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In just 10 minutes 140 families living in the Cotton Farm Village Co-op saw their dream of park ownership vanish.
They were unable to exceed the bid of $3.3 million by an
out-of-state lender in a 1999 auction for the property.
“It was discouraging,” recalled Guy Pichette, who still lives in the Danville, NH manufactured housing park. “We had decided we had to keep lot rents at $290 a month. Some people lived on fixed incomes. We couldn’t bid more than $3.2 million and keep rents under $300.”
Six months later, the park was sold to a New York investor. And in a cruel twist, the new owners increased monthly lot rents to $330.
“Nobody ever thought the rents would go that high,” said the 52-year-old accountant. “We’ve taken a big hit.”
The tenants remain active in case they get another shot at buying the property. “You always have to have hope, I guess,” said Pichette, “You just never know what will happen.”
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Shirley Hooker has lived in the same Tilton, NH location
since 1975. She’s seen a lot of changes.
“When I first moved here, the lot rent was $50 a month. But it kept going up, close to $200 before we bought the park in 1993,” said Hooker, former board secretary of the Windy Hill Manufactured Housing Park Co-op.
The 77-year-old massage therapist says the former owner did little to maintain the park.
“Everything was minimal,” she said. “He used the cheapest materials and that’s why everything kept breaking.”
Tenants got a break in 1993. They beat out a competing buyer to purchase the 48-site community with loans from the Loan Fund and a local bank.
In nine years, lot rents have increased once—by $5. At the same time, many septic systems have been replaced, roads repaved and well systems improved.
“The co-op is such a wonderful idea,” said Hooker. “That we have low-cost living is such a nice situation.”
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Dottie Hillock is sold on the South Parrish Road Co-op in rural Winchester.
“I feel very comfortable here,” said Hillock, a native of the southwestern New Hampshire town. “We all watch out for everyone.”
The 58-year-old bookkeeper said that when she first moved to her home in 1989, people kept to themselves. “Everyone paid their rent and was just kind of there.”
But when the co-op bought the park in 1992, the neighbors began stepping out—including
Hillock. She was elected secretary of the co-op board and
then became its president. After that, she was tapped by
town officials for important town posts, including a seat
on the Board of Selectmen. Rents in the co-op are now stable
and and major improvements to the water, road and septic
systems are complete.
A community meetinghouse has been established through the co-op’s purchase of a former member’s home. Volunteers from the park refurbished the home and, with profits from tag sales and bake sales, bought a new refrigerator and stove to support hosting neighborhood functions.
“People here are willing to work together,” said Hillock. “They are not afraid to get their hands dirty.”
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On April 17, 1997, the 29 families living in the Rambling Woods Manufactured Housing Park declared their independence when they bought the Bethlehem property with a $377,000 loan from the Loan Fund.
“On that day, we got control of our own lives,” said 55-year-old Wayland Phillips, the first treasurer of the Rambling Woods Cooperative.
“Finally, we didn’t have to worry about not having our water or sewer shut off because the owner wasn’t paying the bills,” said Phillips, who with his wife, Julie, has lived in the park for 23 years.
The residents had been through a lot with the latest in a string of owners. In addition to the water and sewer being shut off occasionally, the roads were filled with potholes and bumps. And the rents kept climbing
“Every other Christmas you could count on it from the owner—‘Merry Christmas. Your lot rents are going up.’” said Julie, 62, currently treasurer of the co-op, who with Wayland runs a cleaning business. “We were afraid to complain about the problems here because we knew he’d just up the rent again.”
Today, the tidy rural community with newly paved roads bears no hint of the earlier chaos. And recently, residents received a reduction in their monthly lot rent of $20 because the co-op took advantage of falling interest rates and refinanced 80% of the mortgage at a local bank, saving $855-a-month.
“I wouldn’t want to live again in a park that had a landlord,” said Julie. “In a co-op park, we make decisions together and make the park a better-looking place for all of us.
“You know where your lot rent is going,” added Wayland. “You pay your bills.”
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