BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Preserving low-income housing is growing increasingly difficult in western Washington, as developers gobble up land for pricey high-rises and condos.
Often it's those who can least afford to relocate who are caught in the crosshairs.
Right now, dozens of Bellingham mobile homeowners are living in limbo -- unsure if their homes will be sold out from under them.
As is the case with most mobile home parks, people at the city's Samish Mobile Home Park own their homes, but they rent the land they live on.
When it comes time for the owner to sell his property people are often forced to move, but this time there may be a solution in the works.
When Sharon Kirkman checked her mail a few years ago, she got the news she dreaded.
"I just thought you're gonna end up with homeless people because we're here for a reason," Kirkman said. "This is affordable."
The new owner of the park was sold to a developer who planned to build apartments, leaving the 28 homeowners in a panic.
"Where would any of us go?" Kirkman said. "Because most of the manufactured homes here aren't able to be moved."
Fortunately for them, the City of Bellingham has a new law in place that gives trailer park residents the first option to buy the land they live on.
But how could the mostly low-income folks possibly afford the $5.1 million asking price?
Enter ROC Northwest, an organization that buys low-income properties so they can be preserved.
ROC Northwest, part of the Northwest Cooperative Development Center, loans tenants money to buy the property and they pay it back through their rent.
The organization has saved 25 properties in Washington, Oregon and northern Idaho - and more than 1,000 grateful people.
"It will stay low-income housing in perpetuity," said Deborah Craig with Roc Northwest. "So, it is just one way to hold on to a little bit of affordable housing and empower people."
The Samish Mobile Home Park is a mix of retirees, blue-collar workers and immigrant families.
"If we couldn't put this deal together, these families would've had no place to go," Kirkman said.
While the deal has not been finalized, Kirkman believes it will be approved in the coming months.
It means security for her and a crisis averted for her community.
"We love it here," Kirkman said. "This is the best thing we could ever have happen to us."