The New Hampshire Business Review tells MHProNews the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (NHCLF) has helped over 100 manufactured home communities (MHC) convert to resident-owned cooperatives in the 30 years since the Sisters of Mercy invested their pension fund in the non-profit. The residents of the Meredith Trailer Park formed a cooperative but were unable to qualify for a loan. That $43,000 helped the residents of the 13 homesite Meredith Trailer Park acquire the land under their homes in 1983, with the words to NHCLF from the Sisters, “You better do something good with this and you better pay it back.” They did. The fund brings together people who do not have access to capital with people who have that access and want to do good, giving the investors, according to fund President Juliana Eades, “An IOU, and our best Girl Scout promise to repay.” To date, no investor has lost money, MHProNews has learned. The Exeter-Hampton Cooperative MHC borrowed money to repair roads and install a new water system. The return on investment ranges from one to five percent.

(Photo credit: Greg Derr/patriotledger.com–Westwood Village Co-operative Plymouth, Mass.)