Located 35 miles south of Seattle near Puyallup, the residents of the 41 homesite community had always been neighborly, but working together to achieve ownership brought them much closer. Joe Del Vecchio, a resident of Elmwood for eight years and interim president of the co-op, said, “Of course we wanted to buy it ourselves. We’re more of a community than ever before, and that’s a really good thing. It’s a big deal to have a place we can own and can project what our rent’s going to be for about 10 years.”
Elmwood is the sixth resident-owned community financed by ROC USA Capital in Washington, having preserved 230 homes as affordable housing. Homeowners each buy a share and become members of the co-op, and each household has one vote on matters affecting the community. Members elect a board of directors to operate the day-to-day matters, and vote on the larger issues like the bylaws, community rules and the budget. The Washington State Housing Finance Commission helped ensure an affordable interest rate, according to what thesubtimes tells MHProNews.
“JPMorgan Chase is proud to help more residents call Elmwood home,” said Daryl Shore, Program Manager, Community Development Initiatives, JPMorgan Chase. “Manufactured housing is a valuable source of affordable housing and we are happy that our $4 million grant will help ROC USA take a new approach to addressing important housing challenges.”
ROC Northwest will continue to provide technical assistance to the co-op for the length of the mortgage—about ten years. ##
(Image credit: ROC USA)
