PARKLAND, Wash. — A group of residents in Pierce County banded together to purchase their mobile home park. They made the decision after they found out the property was going to be sold.
The residents at Olga Dor Mobile Home Park in Parkland were able to do this by creating a cooperative with the help of multiple organizations including the Northwest Cooperative Development Center and the Pierce County Community Development Corporation (PCCDC).
The PCCDC gave the cooperative $750,000 to go towards the purchase of the property.
This will be the sixth resident-owned cooperative community in Pierce County. It is the first one to receive acquisition loan funds from the PCCDC.
Olga Dor Resident and Interim Cooperative President Bennie Ward have lived at the mobile home park for almost thirty years.
“It's quiet, it's easy, and inexpensive, that's for sure, compared to the cost of living outside these fences,” said Ward.
The mobile home park has 48 lots and is a 55-and-older community.
“There's actually a lot of retirees in here, so a lot of fixed income, Social Security, that sort of thing,” said Ward.
Residents were fearful and concerned when they found out earlier this year that their mobile home park was going up for sale.
“The first thought, obviously, is that it might get redeveloped, become a shopping center or something like that,” said Ward. “Or that maybe somebody would take it over and then rents the lot, and rents could meet what's going on in the rest of the county.”
The residents were contacted by the Northwest Cooperative Development Center which explained how they could create a cooperative to purchase and run the park themselves.
“I know what a co-op is, but I never heard of it being done in a park like this,” said Ward. “So, it was news to me.”
They formed a co-op and received partial funding from the PCCDC, and purchased the property.
“They put $750,000 towards buying this,” said Ward. “So, that's amazing.”
The chair of the PCCDC said the money they contributed is from their rapid acquisition loan fund.
“Part of our mission is to preserve affordable housing,” said Gary Hawkinson, the chair of the PCCDC nonprofit.
The goal of the Rapid Acquisition Loan Fund is to stop the displacement of residents in properties at high risk of redevelopment or economic displacement.
“Every time we lose a park like this, that's just more people, that they literally sometimes end up on the street,” said Hawkinson. “And the last thing we want is for families and folks in situations like this to lose that affordable housing.”