The Maine Mobile Home Coop Program

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Tenant to Owner.

Factsheet about Mobile Home Parks in Maine

November 2007

With I'M HOME grant, the Genesis Fund launches mobile home park conversion program

Yvonne Mickles hired as program coordinator

 

This fall, the Genesis Fund board and staff received the good news from the Corporation for Enterprise Development that it has been awarded a $50,000 Catalyst Grant from its I'M HOME program (Innovations in Manufactured Homes).

The grant will allow the Genesis Fund to move full speed ahead with efforts to help residents of some of Maine 's 552 mobile home parks convert from investor-owned parks to resident-owned cooperatives. The Genesis Fund's sister loan fund, the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, has, since 1983, been successful in helping residents who occupy the greatest share of unsubsidized affordable housing in the nation to organize, incorporate, purchase and manage their own mobile home parks. Eighty-six parks have been converted in New Hampshire and its successful process has been adapted for use in other states.

With funds from the grant, the Genesis Fund has hired Yvonne Mickles as program coordinator in the effort to identify and assist up to three mobile home parks convert to resident ownership over the next 18 month. Mickles, who has worked as a Homeless Initiatives Coordinator at MaineHousing, is currently Associate Director of Community Impact at United Way of Midcoast Maine. Mickles will begin work at the end of November.

Genesis Fund Associate Director Liza Fleming-Ives, who wrote the grant, is thrilled that Mickles has accepted the job. "Whether it is sitting at someone's kitchen table talking about joining a cooperative or testifying before a legislative committee on behalf of this work, we're confident that Yvonne is equipped to handle it all."

Late in October Fleming-Ives and Executive Director Bill Floyd attended a conference with other I'M HOME grant recipients. "From talking with other groups doing this work," said Floyd, "we know that every park is different and will require a lot of flexibility and creativity to overcome the obstacles of infrastructure problems, funding hurdles and other issues we can't predict. Fortunately flexibility, creativity and responsiveness have always been among the Genesis Fund's strong suits."

The Genesis Fund has already discovered the challenges of this work. Early in 2007, after attending a training program in New Hampshire , the Genesis Fund was asked to assist a small mobile home park in Fort Kent under threat of closure. Despite a core band of committed residents, the strong support of the town's Director of Planning John Bannen, an Affordable Housing Program (AFP) grant from the Home Loan Bank of Boston, and predevelopment support from MaineHousing, the effort eventually failed due to the inability of the residents and the park owner to agree to a purchase price in the light of huge infrastructure failures.

However, with the I'M HOME grant, with the support of MaineHousing, and with the interest of prospective lending partners such as Camden National Bank and Bangor Savings, the Genesis Fund is ready to embark on this important work to support and empower some of Maine 's most low-income citizens. With the successful completion of the I'M HOME grant goals, the Genesis Fund will be eligible to compete in another round of funding for a $150,000 Implementation Grant from the Corporation for Enterprise Development.

For her part, Mickles is ready for the challenge. "Mobile home park conversion to cooperative ownership is a big project with big rewards. Conversion to coop ownership will remove the profit motive from park owners, keep rent/fees stable, empower residents, and give them equity," she said. "I feel very fortunate to be joining the Genesis Fund staff at this time as part of such an important effort."

The Genesis Fund is a member of the I'M HOME (Innovations in Manufactured Homes) network. I'M HOME is a multi-year initiative that seeks to ensure that families who choose to purchase manufactured homes can reap benefits from homeownership comparable to owners of other homes.

 

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