One of the most costly repairs for resident-owned manufactured home co-ops is the preservation and upkeep of roads, stormwater systems, and wastewater disposal. (The infrastructure in manufactured home communities is typically privately-owned). For our partner co-ops, these upgrades can often be unexpected and financially difficult to manage, despite best planning efforts. Cooperative communities in Minnesota often communicate to NCF the need for additional funding sources to help mitigate these challenges and preserve affordable resident ownership in the state. As part of its ongoing advocacy efforts at the Minnesota State Capitol, NCF fought for and established the creation and funding of the Minnesota Manufactured Home Community Redevelopment Program (MHCR) at the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA). Open to resident-owned, municipally-owned, and privately owned communities, the program funds infrastructure projects such as water and sewer upgrades, storm shelter construction or repairs, electrical work, and road and sidewalk improvements.
Due to NCF’s continued advocacy, Minnesota Housing and the Minnesota legislature invested over $9.5 million in the MHCR program in 2022, the single largest funding cycle in the program’s history. The 14 projects that received grants will improve 742 home lots in manufactured home communities located in six different regions of the state.
NCF-supported resident-owned communities received the vast majority of the funding in 2022, totaling nearly $6 million in infrastructure and acquisition projects. The two largest grants were given to resident-owned cooperatives.
Resident-owned Bennett Park Cooperative in Moorhead received the largest grant award at $2.6 million. The funding will help Bennett Park with long overdue infrastructure needs, such as deteriorating sewer pipes, repairing the water main, and reconstructing parking lots. The infrastructure upgrades along with the replacement of six abandoned homes in the community will allow Bennett Park to improve its livability and continue to offer some of the most affordable homeownership in the region.
In a presentation from Minnesota Housing announcing the awards, Bennett Park resident and board member Evangelina Lopez stated, "We're so excited to get started. The park needs a lot of improvements. Our roads are covered with potholes. If you live on the edges of the park, the water pressure is terrible. My hope is that someday people will drive by and say 'oh, that place is really nice.'"
Resident-owned communities who received awards:
$2.6 million - Bennett Park Cooperative, Moorhead, 75 lots, sewer system and street improvements
$2.2 million - Five Lakes Cooperative, Fairmont, 87 lots, street improvements and storm shelter
$600k - Gaylord MHP, Gaylord, 30 lots, acquisition, conversion to new cooperative, and infrastructure updates
$500k - Madelia Mobile Village Cooperative, Madelia, 53 lots, new storm shelter
The grant received by Madelia Mobile Village Cooperative in 2022 builds upon a previously received $700,000 award from the program that the community used to improve two water and sewer lines in their community. The 2022 grant will allow for the construction of a new storm shelter. This example shows the ability of communities to use the MHCR program in a phased approach, improving infrastructure over multiple years to set themselves up for sustained success.
Further, for the first time in the MHCR program’s history, a grant will be used for the acquisition of a manufactured home community, with the intention of converting the park into a resident owned cooperative. Located in Gaylord, Minnesota, the residents of Gaylord Manufactured Home Park have established El Nuevo Amanecer (The New Dawn) Cooperative and are on the path to resident ownership in 2023. This marks the first time in NCF history that the organization has facilitated a co-op acquisition project entirely in Spanish. This community is some of the only affordable workforce housing in the region and this grant looks to preserve that for future generations.
Please see below for a map of the communities that received funding from the MHCR program in 2022 and click here for a video announcing the awards.
