MISSOULA, Mont. — When Lynda Hartless moved to the Old Hellgate Village manufactured home park in 2006, she thought it was the perfect place to retire. Hartless was able to pay the rent on one income and her lot has mountain views.
“It’s so peaceful to sit out there and listen to the birds,” she said. “It’s the perfect place for me. Then all the trailer parks in the city started disappearing, which made me think, ‘Oh my god, what am I going to do? Where should I move this? It was a frightening thought.”
That’s why Hartless has taken the option of forming a cooperative with her neighbors to purchase the park, located on Mullan Road west of Reserve Street.
“The security of having a place that can’t be taken away from you is very important for someone who is older and retired,” she said.
As a resident-owned community (ROC), Old Hellgate Village is cooperatively owned and democratically run by its residents. Instead of paying rent to a private landlord, they pay the cooperative.
NeighborWorks Montana worked with the community to help negotiate the purchase, set up the cooperative, elect the initial board and review new bylaws and policies, said Adam Poeschl, the organization’s ROC acquisition specialist.
On October 16, the residents of the park with 34 homes officially became owners after two years. During that period, the deal initially failed and was revived.
Jessica Adams, interim chair of the board, said that while the first attempt to form the co-op was tough on the neighborhood, the second attempt was quickly a success.
“What brought everyone together was this feeling: Let’s be a community and do this for ourselves,” she said. “Not just for me or anyone else, but for everyone.”
Old Hellgate Village received a $2.8 million loan from the state’s Coal Trust Multifamily Home Loan Program and a $300,000 loan from NeighborWorks Montana to cover $2.5 million in purchase and other project costs.
Normally, ROC USA’s financing arm is the default lender for these projects, but Old Hellgate Village and two other Missoula County ROCs received loans through the Montana Board of Housing program, Poeschl said. The financing helped make the purchase affordable, keeping rents lower for residents, he said.
“It’s really a great opportunity for residents, especially working-class residents, to have some freedom of choice in their living arrangements because they and their neighbors can choose together what kind of neighborhood they want to have,” Poeschl said. “They are not looking for an owner of a private park to do things like maintenance and maintenance. Ultimately, they get to determine the rent of the lot and only pay the bills. There is no profit to be made, and any extra money after the bills are paid goes straight back into the community.”
The co-op raised the rent slightly to pay for loans and improvements to the property, but the rate remains comparable to rents for similarly manufactured residential parks, said Hartless, the board’s treasurer.
One of the co-op’s biggest projects in the coming years will be connecting to the city’s sewer system, Hartless said. The change would address concerns about the park’s aging septic and plumbing systems, she said. The manufactured home park was built in 1968.
Adams said the community is also discussing repairing the road and improving the water pumps to make the water less hard. Completing upgrades and refurbishing the park will enhance residents’ sense of pride and ownership, she said.
Hartless said she would like to see a pickleball court, and other residents suggested adding a playground and picnic shelter.
Both Adams and Hartless said serving on the board has been a learning experience and an opportunity for them to give back to the community.
“I just wanted to get it going and be part of the whole experience,” Hartless said. “I’ve learned so much by going through the property condition reports and seeing what’s going on with this park.”
Adams said that while the process involved a lot of paperwork, it went smoothly and it was nice to “be part of the hands that got us there.”
“I’m really proud of everyone in the park,” she said. “I am proud of each of us and the role they played in making this happen. We couldn’t do it without them.”
Hartless said she enjoys the fact that she has gotten to know her neighbors better.
“It’s nice to see people stepping up and helping each other,” she said. “I look forward to a bright future, one where the community comes together. I’m just looking forward to that.”
NeighborWorks Montana will work with the Old Hellgate Village co-op for 10 years to ensure it runs smoothly and adheres to loan covenants, Poeschl said. The co-op paid NeighborWorks 4% of the sales price for technical assistance prior to the purchase and will pay a fixed amount annually for the 10-year contract, he said.
Poeschl said NeighborWorks Montana is excited for residents to take ownership of their community after a longer-than-normal process.
“They have done a good job of keeping the community spirit alive by bringing about this purchase by residents,” he said. “I’m excited to see how they take that community spirit further into the changes they want to make in their neighborhood.”
Old Hellgate Village is the 22nd community owned by Montana, joining four others in Missoula County, according to NeighborWorks. Poeschl said the organization is creating new communities of residents in Montana at a “fairly steady rate.”
Although the program has limited capacity, park owners often reach out after hearing about the option from each other or through the news, Poeschl said. For the owner, selling to residents is just like any other real estate transaction, he said. The organization tries to stick to a 120-day timeline and pays fair market value for a community, so feedback is usually positive, Poeschl said.
“The seller gets their investment back, and they also find out that they helped preserve their community as manufactured homes in perpetuity, and they helped the residents maintain the community they love living in,” he said.
NeighborWorks has seen increased interest in resident-owned communities, from residents of mobile home parks and local governments that want to preserve naturally affordable housing, Poeschl said. The organization is considering converting two other communities in the Missoula area in the coming year, he said.
Adams and Hartless encouraged residents of other mobile home parks to contact NeighborWorks Montana for more information on how to become a cooperative. The protection from sales and development is worth the rent increase the co-op had to implement, Hartless said.
“I encourage people to go through the process and reach out to other ROCs to share their information, knowledge and experiences,” she said. “And don’t give up.”
This story was updated on Oct. 29, 2024, to correct the name of the interim president of the Old Hellgate Village board.
