Residents of the Country Meadows mobile home park filed into the board of county commissioners meeting room on Tuesday. With the park listed for sale, they asked Gunnison County for help in buying the location so as to stave off what they said could be a wave of homelessness if they are forced to leave.
“We need urgent help,” said Country Meadows resident Gregorio Luna. “Soon we will have nowhere to go because there are no other places here.”
In particular, Luna and the six neighbors who joined him, asked that Gunnison County provide legal assistance to organize the residents of the park to buy the land.
“I hope the Gunnison County commissioners do not overlook the violation of human rights taking place and will protect the rights of our children and prevent homelessness from happening in our county and prevent the loss of home property,” said Diana De La Fuente.
There are between 350-400 residents living at Country Meadows, De La Fuente said, and Gunnison County records show there are 57 housing units there.
County Community Development Director Cathie Pagano, told commissioners and others in the room that a recently passed Colorado statute provides an opportunity for trailer park residents to do just that. But the law does not require that owners accept an offer made by residents, only that they consider that offer in good faith.
The timeframe with which Country Meadows residents can organize and make a proposal to buy the land is short, Pagano said. The law allows for 90 days after a property is put up for sale. With Country Meadows having been listed in late June, there are only about two months for the proposal to come together, she said.
The county is legally prohibited from providing direct legal services in this matter, said County Attorney Matthew Hoyt, but he said county staff could and should reach out to the many lawyers in the Gunnison Valley to see if pro bono services could be offered.
The purchase of trailer parks by their residents is a nationwide phenomenon, as many places in the U.S. face a housing shortage. One group in Colorado that helps to organize such transactions is Thistle ROC (resident-owned communities). Pagano said she had reached out to the group for help with Country Meadows but heard back that they are too busy with other projects.
Thistle ROC has made two previous offers to buy Country Meadows, both of which were turned down by the current owner. Ricardo Esqueda, who helped translate the meeting into Spanish for county staff and residents on Tuesday, said those denials may have been because the current owner was not ready to sell at the time.
County records show the owner of the park is River Walk Village LLC of Littleton.
Pagano, however, mentioned that there may be other groups that could help. She also emphasized that the residents themselves would need to take on a big role.
To make the trailer park resident owned is going to take “a lot of help and organization from you all on your end. It will be a very big deal if we are successful. It’s a big challenge. Together, let’s try,” Pagano said.
Commissioner Roland Mason said he supported calling special meetings of the board of county commissioners to pursue options in the Country Meadows sale. Commissioners Jonathan Houck and Liz Smith were supportive of that idea, too. They asked that the topic be scheduled for their Tuesday morning work session next week.
“Developing new affordable housing is a fool’s errand if we can’t hold onto housing for important, critical and connected members of our community,” Houck said. “You are our friends and our neighbors, and what you are facing is really difficult, and we are here to help.”
(Sam Liebl can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or editor@gunnisontimes.com)
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