Investment Profile

Community Loan Fund

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The Community Loan Fund has provided financing for residents in manufactured housing parks in the northeastern United States that enables them to take ownership of the land they live on through cooperative ownership.
A group of people holding their arms up to vote on a lawn in a manufactured home park.
Resident members of a manufactured home cooperative vote to purchase their manufactured home park in Derry, New Hampshire, made possible by a loan from the Community Loan Fund. Courtesy Community Loan Fund
Investment size $7.5M
Theme Shared Economy
Type Indirect
Geography United States
Date 2019

Theory of Change

By investing in financing platforms that foster the expansion of shared ownership models, this investment will support the scaling of a structure—resident-owned communities—that contributes to building a more just economy.

Challenge and Context

More than 20 million Americans live in residential manufactured housing parks that provide affordable homes. Most residents of the approximately 50,000 parks in the United States own their homes but not the land underneath them. Instead, they pay a monthly “lot rent” to the park owner.

The sector has historically been fragmented, with individual landlords renting out space and accommodation to tenants. But rising land prices have attracted private equity investors into the sector, buying up parks to consolidate ownership and increase profits from rental in ways that can threaten the security and livelihood of tenants.

Description

Resident-owned communities represent an alternative model, pioneered by Community Loan Fund. State law in New Hampshire gives park residents facing the sale of the land on which their home stand the right of first refusal to match outside bids. In a resident-owned community, residents form a cooperative and buy the land under their homes themselves and managing the park for their mutual benefit. Resident-owned communities benefit homeowners by preserving affordability, improving park conditions, eliminating the threat of park closure, and removing the land from the speculative private-equity driven real estate markets.

Community Loan Fund provides loans, training, and technical assistance to help residents buy and manage their communities. In 2019, SEDF provided the Fund with a 10-year loan to finance the purchase of four manufactured housing parks.

Impact

A couple with two dogs
Despite not having a traditional credit history, this couple was able to purchase their mobile home in a resident owned community with the help of a loan from the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund. © New Hampshire Community Loan Fund/Forester
This investment was intended to finance the Community Loan Fund’s work to convert four manufactured housing parks home to over 900 families in New Hampshire, avoiding their planned sale to a large private equity buyer. On July 19, 2019, 874 families in three New Hampshire parks officially bought their communities, while a fourth park was purchased by its 44 resident families in December 2020. In doing so, they made their homes permanently affordable.

Why SEDF?

SEDF’s long-term, patient loan provided Community Loan Fund with the type of capital required to finance the parks’ conversions. The investment is being accompanied by advocacy and grant-giving work by the Open Society Economic Justice Program and by Open Society-U.S. aimed at promoting cooperative ownership nationally.

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