Of the forty-three manufactured homes in the Foothills and Riverbend Mobile Home Parks that were devastated in Lyons, Colorado by eight days of torrential rain and subsequent flooding, none have been replaced, dailycamera tells MHProNews. In fact, there is nothing to indicate that the disaster did not happen last week instead of two years ago.

Upended appliances and furnishings, manufactured homes with busted windows, and piles of twisted metal in the dirt path that once was a paved road, still litter both communities flooded by the St. Vrain River. The flood hit this Boulder County region of artists, musicians and blue-collar workers harder than any other part of the state.

While residents expressed an initial desire to return and reclaim their home sites, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has determined that Foothills is in a floodway and would require a four-foot build up of the entire community, an unlikely project; and Riverbend is now an event center, home to the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival.

A ballot measure attempt to site a 66-unit affordable housing project on six acres of public land in downtown Lyons did not pass, resulting in most of the former residents of the MH communities, many of whom had generations of roots here, to move elsewhere. Emily Dusel, co-director of the Lyons Emergency Assistance Fund, said, “We’re not going to tell them, ‘You’re not coming back,’ but we are telling them to look at the best lifestyle choice for you and your family at this point.”

Lyons is landlocked with untouchable open space, and there is no existing space large enough to accommodate MH. She adds, “Imagine if we could put 300 units on a property. Then, it makes sense for a big developer of manufactured housing to come in because they can make a profit on the rents. But 15 units doesn’t make sense, and that’s why no one’s done it.”

The flood hastened the gentrification of Lyons, where the divide between the haves and have-nots is more accentuated than ever. Janaki Jane, the Emergency Assistance Fund’s liaison and advisor to displaced residents, calls the demographic loss “a tragedy.”

“Any community that becomes monocultural loses greatly, and losing our diversity is a real problem,” she said. “And that doesn’t even enter into economic considerations of who’s going to wait tables and work in our stores.” ##

(Photo credit: dailycamera–Carrie Gonzalez in Foothills Mobile Home Park two years after floodwaters demolished  two MHCs in Colorado.)

Article submitted by Matthew J. Silver to Daily Business News-MHProNews.