Demand for cell homes has increased in recent years as other people struggle to find housing. It has also made cell home parks attractive to investors, who buy them and raise rents.
In Washington state, some cellhouse citizens are struggling to buy the land themselves.
But experts say few resident communities will win the bidding war without more help from the state.
Carnation Mobile Haven is an RV park for seniors about 40 minutes east of Seattle. Linda Brown, 82, lives in one of the tiny homes with her dachshund, Chavi.
“He sits here and gives me something to love and pet,” she says. “We love each other. That’s what we do.”
Brown is concerned because the owner of this mobile home park, who she says has generously kept rents low here for many years, is selling to an investor for just over $1 million.
Financial experts will probably have to especially raise rents to cover the purchase price. If that happens, Brown, who lives off a small Social Security check, will have to go. This is called “economic expulsion. “
“You know what I need more than anything?” Brown said, “That I’m 20 years younger and maybe I’m still working. Because when I could work, I had the strength, I had my own income. Yes, Chavi, I did. And I can take care of myself. “My biggest concern is that I don’t need my kids to take care of me. That’s my biggest concern.
As she answers questions, Chavi growls quietly.
“It’s very hard for me,” Brown continues. “I get very anxious. I’m like the dog — anxious. “
Other people in this mobile home park say they could become homeless, like Tom and Patty Gilbert, whose home has become a rock of monetary stability, a typhoon of skyrocketing medical bills. Their house also fills an emotional need, as a place where lots of geodes, arrowheads, antique bottles and trilobite fossils collected over 50 years of marriage are on display.
“We’re not aware of any other place that we could afford,” Patty says.
At the end of the street, her neighbor Linda Henault puts it more somberly.
“We would have to take up position and move to a tent,” he says.
“In a tent,” says Norma Ross, Henault’s sister and roommate.
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Until recently, citizens thought they had the ability to acquire this position for themselves.
Under a state law that went into effect this summer, cellhouse park citizens now have the option to acquire the land beneath their homes as a resident-owned co-op. The procedure consists of increasing the rents of the flats in the short term, to cover their debt. But then rents stabilized.
In Washington state, cooperatives in the resident-owned network, or Republic of China cooperatives, can benefit from ROC Northwest, a program of the Northwest Cooperative Development Center, a nonprofit organization.
Victoria O’Banion is in charge of acquisitions at the organization. She says the few mobile home parks that successfully pull together competitive offers can stomach a significant rent increase.
“They’re able to do that because they’re working families,” she explains.
In contrast, Carnation Mobile Haven is full of seniors on fixed income from social security.
O’Banion says the Carnation deal didn’t come to fruition. Residents didn’t have enough money and she said the Northwest Republic of China didn’t have enough time to locate more.
The investors they opposed moved too quickly, waiving all inspections so their deal could close in just 30 days, O’Banion says.
“Any cash from the state—any money you have to receive—requires a physical inspection of the park, an environmental analysis,” O’Banion says. “It requires so many inspections that it takes me at least 90 days. “
And that’s just to make a competitive offer that matches the personal investor’s offer of just over $4 million. O’Banion says it would take about one to two years to find enough additional cash (about $3 million) to keep rents low in Carnation.
The news of the deal’s failure hit the citizens of Carnation Mobile Haven hard. Steven Bayne, who defends his network to any state or city official willing to listen, is cynical. He says he believes the formula is rigged, unlike cell home parks where citizens are 55 and older.
“There are other people who are going to be in a very deep state of mind here,” he said.
Bayne says ROC Northwest raised the hopes of residents at Carnation Mobile Haven, then stopped communicating when things went bad, leaving residents unclear about their options and their future.
“I feel we were not dealt with in good faith,” he says.
In an email related to Bayne’s complaint, Ann Campbell, director of the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Homeownership Program, pointed to a trite formula and misunderstandings.
“Northwest Cooperative Development Corporation is an incredibly limited staff organization trying to work with multiple communities facing sales in our state. I am truly saddened by the lack of communication you have experienced,” the email reads.
O’Banion says it’s understandable that Carnation’s elders are grieving.
“I hear them and I see them,” he says.
O’Banion adds that in 2024, he will ask the state legislature to fund systems that help secure more deals.
Representative Strom Peterson of Everett chairs the Housing Committee and he’s open to the idea.
“It’s hard to compete with the private market,” he says. “These are some profitable communities. There’s a reason that Warren Buffett has been buying communities around the country. They can be really good investments. I think they can be really good investments for the state.”
Mobile home parcels can charge the state between $75,000 and $100,000 per home to be preserved, the resident cooperative model. By comparison, an apartment in the Seattle metro area typically costs between $300,000 and $400,000.
Peterson says he would be in favor of giving easily accessible cash to the Commerce Department so the state can step in and resident co-ops temporarily get cellhouse parks, much like the state is doing lately with hotels and motels. .
With a gigantic budget deficit (due to emerging prices for road culvert construction) and a short legislative session, cash will be difficult to come by in 2024.
Even if lawmakers act, it can’t happen fast enough to save Carnation Mobile Haven from investors.
Back at her cell house, Linda Brown pets Chavi the dachshund, sitting between her knees and the recliner. For several minutes now, Chavi has been growling softly. The noise gets louder when the reporter with the big, fuzzy microphone gets up to leave.
“My dog and I,” Brown said.
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