With the help of a $700,000 bridge loan – the Genesis Fund's largest loan ever – the small coastal community of Cundy's Harbor located at the tip of Great Island in Harpswell has purchased and will begin emergency repairs to the historic and locally-important Holbrook Wharf property.

In the spring of 2005 when the privately held property, which includes a wharf for commercial fishing, the community's general store, a waterside restaurant, an 1860 house with two apartments, moorings, and parking, came up for sale, the Trust for Public Land secured an option. To finance the purchase local residents mobilized to form the nonprofit Holbrook Community Foundation. Over the last 18 months, the “Campaign to Keep Holbrook's Working” has raised more than $700,000 from more than 550 donors and supporters toward the $1.5 million goal.

Fresh from training at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund's (NHCLF) Meredith Institute in early November, two Genesis Fund staffers, Beth McPherson and Liza Fleming-Ives, are beginning work with the Town of Fort Kent in northern Aroostook County on the conversion of a manufactured housing park. With a 16-lot park under threat of closure, the Genesis Fund is helping park residents explore the feasibility of turning their privately held park into a resident-owned cooperative.

The experience of the NHCLF, which has helped with financing and assistance in the conversion of 80 manufactured home parks since 1983, has given the Genesis Fund a head-start in beginning its newest initiative of assisting some of Maine's 552 parks (which more than 19,700 often low-income families call home) become resident-owned.

"We returned home from the training in New Hampshire and were considering where to start with this work when we heard from the economic development office in Fort Kent. It seems that the many long-term residents of the Fort Kent park received the statute-required one year notice of closure," explained McPherson, executive director of the Genesis Fund.

While in New Hampshire Fleming-Ives, associate director of the Genesis Fund, visited several resident-owned parks in Southern New Hampshire. "It was exciting to see what happens after a park has been resident-owned for awhile. Owners begin to do landscaping and build porches and decks. Ownership and being involved in the management of the cooperative can really empower people," said Fleming Ives.

"One park was only a few years from paying off its mortgage, and I could tell how proud the owners I met were of that accomplishment. We're hopeful that the Genesis Fund's work will be able to assist Maine manufactured home residents in a similar way."

Why do people support the Genesis Community Loan Fund?

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Our newly expanded "Supporting Genesis" section profiles a few of our supporters and offers more information than ever about how your gift or investment loan can assist Maine groups that are working to improve their communities.