After the school bus swings by Aspen-Basalt Mobile Home Park, kids spill out onto the playground in the center of the neighborhood: kicking around a soccer ball, lobbing a volleyball and narrowly avoiding windshields.
It's been this way for decades, said resident Lorena Vargas. She lives in the park with her husband and their two daughters, right next to her in-laws.
“That's something that you find throughout the mobile home park. It's pretty multi-generational,” she said. “The people we grew up with are now having their kids there, and so our kids are growing up together.”
But in March, residents of Aspen-Basalt and Mountain Valley mobile home parks got notice that their owners plan to sell the parks for a collective $42 million.
It sparked fears that a new owner could raise the rent or evict the 139 households. Vargas grew up in Basalt and has faced eviction twice, once from the Pan and Fork Mobile Home Park.
“You immediately start to think [about] the worst case scenarios,” she said. “I'm going to lose my house. I'm going to have to relocate my children.”
With 120 days to submit an offer, the residents voted to partner with Thistle, a nonprofit that helps Colorado mobile home parks with these types of purchases. By owning the parks, they can have more control over lot payments, make choices on capital improvements and live without the worry of rent hikes or evictions.
But the residents aren't the only potential buyer, and they'll need to submit a competitive offer to keep mortgage payments affordable. Thistle estimates that they'll need to raise $20 million toward the purchase price.
Local contributions
In total, $12.6 million has been pledged for residents of Aspen-Basalt and Mountain Valley Mobile Home Parks to buy their parks.
With over $10 million from local governments, a $1 million pledge from Atlantic Aviation and $500,000 from Aspen One, the total pledged is over half of their goal, but still short of the $20 million needed to keep lot payments low in a mortgage.
April Long, executive director of West Mountain Regional Housing Coalition, is wrangling local government, private donors and any other funding avenues for the residents.
Regional governments set a goal to commit $10 million to the parks, which they’ve already exceeded, but there’s still a gap to fill.
Long is grateful that donors are recognizing that the residents play an important role in the community.
“It’s going to take all of us,” she said. “If it's not your employee, it's your employees' kids, teacher, it's the person that might be re-roofing your house next.”
If a sale were to go through at $42 million, the price per lot would eclipse regional norms for mobile home park sales. Tom Snyder, a local attorney, is doing pro bono work for the Aspen-Basalt residents.
“I do think that the price here is going to set a dangerous precedent, and that's going to happen regardless of whoever buys it,” he said.
If the residents have to move, it's extremely unlikely that they would be able to afford to stay in the area.
Median home prices in Basalt and Carbondale are over a million dollars if you can find something for sale. The state laws that protect mobile home park residents acknowledge the parks' roles in preserving affordable housing, Snyder said, but new parks are hard to come by.
“It's a fabulous opportunity for affordable housing that doesn't really usually put many public dollars at risk, but they're a dinosaur,” he said. “Unfortunately, nobody's opening any new mobile home parks in places where it would be convenient.”
What’s ahead
Vargas said it would also be hard to replicate the sense of community in the parks, particularly for Latinos.
“It creates that little bubble and sense of, ‘Hey, my neighbors also speak the same language. They also have the same values,’” she said.
She added that this sale is forcing the community to face the importance of mobile home parks, something she's grateful for.
“I feel like this was almost a necessary evil,” she said. “This needed to happen to get the attention of our local government and our community and our valley as a whole of this instability and lack of accessible and affordable housing.”
Residents have until August 7 to submit an offer.
Tuesday night, the Carbondale Board of Trustees voted 5-1 to approve a $1 million commitment to the parks, the most recent contribution, and urged the town of Basalt to meet that threshold.
“I lived in the Aspen-Basalt Mobile Home Park when I was very young, but I remember the community,” said Trustee Christina Montemayor. “I know that it's the reason why my parents were able to stay in the valley after growing up in Aspen. … I think it's really important to keep the communities here.”
Pitkin County and the city of Aspen both approved $3 million in commitments. Eagle County approved a $2.5 million commitment as a $1.5 million grant and $1 million loan. The towns of Snowmass Village and Carbondale both approved $1 million and the town of Basalt, the first to dedicate funds, doubled its commitment from $250,000 to $500,000. The city of Glenwood Springs committed $100,000.
The residents of Mountain Valley are hosting a fundraiser block party this Saturday, June 28 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Row B of the park.
Editor's Note: The original version of this story did not include the city of Glenwood Springs' financial contributions to the Aspen-Basalt and Mountain Valley mobile home parks' efforts to purchase their parks.
