Genesis board supports exploration into manufactured housing cooperatives

More than 20 years have passed since the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (NHCLF) first assisted a group of mobile home owners in purchasing their
park and setting up a cooperative ownership plan. NHCLF recognized the importance of helping residents of manufactured housing parks who are particularly vulnerable to a park owner's whims: dramatically raised rents, utility and security problems, and insufficient maintenance as well as the always looming possibility of a sudden park closure.

Since 1984 NHCLF has helped the people of 75 manufactured housing parks, representing nearly 4,000 homesites, become owners of their own parks by offering loans, technical assistance and development expertise for both existing and new communities.

Across Maine there are 552 parks that more than 19,700  families call home, according to the Maine Manufactured Housing Board in Augusta.  None of the parks in Maine are resident-owned.

At their June meeting, Genesis Fund board of directors learned that this fall the NHCLF, in a program called the Meredith Institute, will share their expertise as a leader in the field by providing training to other organizations. Recognizing that such work linking affordable housing to the needs of underserved people in Maine is central to Genesis' mission, the board charged staff to attend the Meredith Institute and to begin to investigate how the Genesis Fund might become involved in this important effort.

For more...

June 2007

Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston awards grants and subsidy of $120,000 to support Riverview Cooperative in Fort Kent (more...)

April 2007

Momentum for Fort Kent resident-owned community builds; MaineHousing and Maine Community Foundation offer support (more...)

March 2007

Genesis assists mobile home park residents in purchasing their park

Fort Kent residents form cooperative; Genesis applies for grants (more...)

January 2007

Genesis Fund works with the Town of Fort Kent to convert manufactured home park to a Resident-Owned Community -- a first in Maine (more...)