The MCDC has received $1.65 million from a program of the U. S. Treasury called the Community Development Financial Institution Fund which can be used to help other MHCs become co-operatives, according to Dave Glaser, MCDC president. He said, “As of right now, there are only five resident-owned communities that have been financed in Montana and Idaho,” Glaser explained. “But across Idaho and Montana, there are 600 possible mobile home parks” in which the owner wants to sell the land.
The MCDC works with NeighborWorks Montana and ROC (resident-owned communities) USA to identify potential MHCs where residents can buy their communities at a fair market value.
NeighborhoodWorks Montana goes in and does community organizing, teaching residents that this is a possibility,” Glaser explained. “They form a cooperative like a board, like a neighborhood association, and they apply for financing from ROC USA and us. They get the community together and finance the land with long-term, fixed-rate financing.”
Within the last two years MCDC has financed the purchase of Northwood Community in Ronan and Trailer Terrace in Great Falls, helping 421 people gain secure housing. Glaser expects to assist two or three additional communities each year become co-operatives.
He says, “It’s one more really powerful way to use financing to help low-income people in Montana. The idea is by financing the land for a cooperative, it provides stability and opportunity for the cooperative to be a landowner, and have stability and predictability going forward in the lowest-income housing in the state.” He adds the communities have a 100 percent record of repaying the loan.
Noting this is the seventh straight year MCDC has received this funding, he said 374 organizations applied for $435 million, but only 152 awards totaling $160 million were distributed. “Less than one-third of applicants got it. We have a track record of identifying needs in Montana and deploying capital in places that really need it most. That really sets us up to be successful year after year,” added Glaser. ##
(Photo credit: Montana NeighborWorks-Rion Sanders)
