Park's homeowners celebrate victory

Residents banded together, bought park with state grant

By Keri Brenner | The Olympian • Published August 07, 2008

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OLYMPIA – Ten months after they were told to pay $95,000 each for their lots or get out, residents of a manufactured-home park in northeast Thurston County have made a "win-win" deal to own the whole place.

Tumwater's rules on manufactured homes

Tumwater's planning commission is considering an proposed ordinance to preserve other manufactured- home parks amid the threat of increasing property values.

The ordinance would establish a manufactured-home park zone that would allow mobile-home parks, single-family houses, recreation parks and child-care facilities. Developments such as apartments or condominiums would not be allowed.

After the Planning Commission considers the ordinance, the City Council will consider it for adoption around the end of the year.

The ordinance would affect about 650 homes and an estimated 1,000 people who live in the mobile-home parks in Tumwater.

The Olympian

With help from a nonprofit agency and a Seattle attorney, residents of the 20-lot former College Street Mobile Home Park made themselves into a cooperative and renamed the park Hidden Village.

The 30 residents then raised the $1.7 million purchase price for their park by going after a unique combination of federal, state and Thurston County grants and loans.

"It's a wonderful success story," said Ishbel Dickens, a public-interest attorney with Seattle-based Columbia Legal Services. "It's a win-win for everyone; owners get a fair market value for their property and community residents get to continue living in their homes."

Without the purchase, which participants are expected to sign off on Sept. 12, residents faced eviction. Eviction notices sent in October said the residents could pay $95,000 each to buy their individual lots or get out by Nov. 1, 2008.

"They would have had to move out, and move their homes — probably to the dump," Dickens said. "The majority still have mortgages on their homes; they would have lost all their investments and still have had to find a place to live."

Carol Calkins, one of the resident leaders, said moving would have meant losing all their friends and connections in the community. Instead, working to save the park has brought the neighbors closer, forming "one big huge family," she said.

"It's been a real joy to participate in this kind of experience," Calkins said. "I think it's something that people in other parks might want to consider; it does take a lot of work."

Hidden Village is one of the few manufactured-home cooperatives on the West Coast financed almost entirely through public money. Until the purchase deal came together this summer, College Street was one of hundreds of manufactured-home parks nationwide slated to be closed, the result of exploding land values.

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