Tim Merrick arrived in Fort Collins with the intention of starting over, of regenerating the work life that had gone bust in Arizona while also living close to his daughter as she attended college nearby. Then he faced the Colorado conundrum: Where could he find affordable housing? Living off his Social Security while he searched […]
affordable housing
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News, Politics and Government
Parked: Colorado towns are taking action to preserve their remaining mobile-home parks
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Jeff Morehead’s cat slips through the small, square door carved into his wooden fence, a gateway from Morehead’s mobile home lot to a serene landscape of blooming flowers and shade trees. On the other side of the wall is the Yampa River Botanic Park, a public garden that hugs the edge of […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News
Parked: Ouray woman watches a mobile-home investment evaporate with her mother’s death
For many Coloradans, the purchase of a single- or double-wide trailer represents their variation on the American dream of home ownership and a slice of financial equity, even in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. But in Ouray, Lillian McMurrin’s experience stands as a cautionary tale of how the relationship between mobile-home park resident […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News
Parked: Routt County manufactured homes by the numbers
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Routt County’s manufactured home supply has been almost reduced by half in just the last decade. Routt County Assessor Gary Peterson noted there were roughly 1,300 total manufactured homes in the county when he began his tenure in 2010. Today, there are only about 800. Two manufactured home parks no longer exist […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, Health, News, Politics and Government
Parked: Aurora considers how to preserve mobile-home parks after park’s closure
More than a year ago, Aurora was blazing trails in how to handle the battle between mobile home park owners and helpless renters. Now, Aurora lawmakers, like so many across the state, are struggling again with whether and how to preserve the dwindling stock of affordable housing. When Aurora City Council members approved a 10-month […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News, Politics and Government
Parked: One of the wealthiest counties in Colorado owns four mobile-home parks, an effort to hold on to affordable housing
While the existence of five mobile-home parks in Colorado’s wealthiest county might come as a surprise to some, they are actually an integral part of Pitkin County’s affordable housing system. In fact, the city of Aspen first took steps in the early 1980s to preserve a mobile-home park in the middle of town that still […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News
Parked: Fort Collins considers reforms to preserve 30 mobile home parks and improve conditions
Fort Collins leaders are taking advantage of a reshuffled city council lineup to dust off proposed mobile home park reforms that have long failed to gain traction. The policies taking shape could help preserve over 30 mobile home parks in the city and surrounding areas and improve conditions for thousands of residents — some of […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News
Parked: Eagle County mobile-home parks become immigrants’ home away from home
AVON — The Aspens Mobile Home Village sits on a wedge of land tucked between eastbound I-70 and the Eagle River in the mountains near Vail. The park is easy to miss in the blur of freeway speeds — trees, a fence, trailers flashing past before the blue sign for Exit 167 zooms into view, […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News
Parked: Mobile-home dwellers left behind after 2013 Colorado floods
LYONS — When the flood waters in 2013 subsided, tens of thousands of evacuees along Colorado’s Front Range returned to see what happened to their homes. One of them was Amanda Anderson. “All of it was just mud,” Anderson said. “It was so dark in there because of the mud. It was like walking into […]
Posted inColoradans, Growth, News
Parked: Fire can be risky, deadly drawback of living in mobile homes
GREELEY — For many with low or fixed incomes, mobile homes provide an affordable housing option that’s hard to beat as housing costs continue to rise in Colorado. But that affordability can come at a cost, one residents of the Holiday Village mobile-home community in Greeley paid in full nearly 15 years ago. In 2004, […]