Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Mobile Home Communities Everyone Can Afford (almost)

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Dec 10, 2020, at 1:57 AM, Brian Bartholomew via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> I checked out a defunct mobile home park site in my area around 2003
> or 2004. I thought since it was empty there would not be current
> residents who would object to coho. My mistake, city residents were
> voting to ban cheaper forms of housing

One of the issues with run down housing is that municipalities don’t enforce 
the laws. In most places if not all, there are various ordinances that require 
yard maintenance, control signage, abandoned buildings, etc. One of the things 
I learned from reading _Evicted_ was that many buildings and mobile home parks 
are run by the landlords for depreciation. No funds are  used to maintain them. 
The landlord then sells the property to a developer.

In my neighborhood the Business Association received a grant to paint the 
storefronts of a row of small shops built in 1913. I doubt there are similar 
grants for private housing. Or grants for people to repair their own houses 
that are comparable to the grants that subsidize the rent for low-income 
households.

My hope is that some of the skills gained by building cohousing communities can 
be used to build low income housing. Not only to build it but to sustain it as 
a community by sharing maintenance.

Sharon
——— 
Sharon Villines
http://affordablecohousing.com
affordablecohousing [at] groups.io
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