Bellingham mobile home park’s affordability uncertain after residents’ land purchase attempt fails

The future affordability of a Bellingham manufactured home park is uncertain after an attempt by the park residents to buy the land was unsuccessful and the community was sold to a new owner.

Lakeway Mobile Estates is a senior community made up of 218 individually owned manufactured homes on more than 28 acres in Bellingham’s Puget neighborhood. Residents pay a monthly fee to lease the land that their homes are on.

In December residents were notified by letter that the property owner intended to sell the community. Per city and state law meant to maintain affordable housing and prevent manufactured home park residents from being displaced when their land is sold, the residents were given the “opportunity to compete” to buy the park.

Residents attempted to purchase the property with help from the Northwest Cooperative Development Center, a nonprofit organization focused on building affordable housing through cooperative ownership in Washington and North Idaho using the ROC-USA model.

The organization helps residents “run the numbers” to see if a purchase makes sense and works with nonprofit lenders to secure funding for these purchases.

The city of Bellingham also attempted to facilitate a resident purchase of the park by offering between $5 and $7 million of assistance. Ultimately, due to the high value of the land, residents were unable to feasibly offer a competitive purchase amount.

“We are sorry to hear that Lakeway Mobile Estates (the ‘Park’) is being sold for approximately $41 million,” the city stated in an email to a constituent about the sale. “We understand that the purchase price could result in a significant increase in lot rent, which many low-income residents at the Park will be unable to afford.”

In a statement to The Herald, Victoria O’Banion of the Northwest Cooperative Development Center said the organization “recognizes the uncomfortable reality that in some cases, a resident-owned cooperative is unable to afford the acquisition of their manufactured home community.”

O’Banion said many factors “outside of our control and driven by the real estate market” can contribute to the inability of residents to buy their community including:

▪ The land and business value.

▪ The interest rate of the available capital for acquisition.

▪ The potential lot rent increase for each household which results in a higher risk for the lender.

“We are actively advocating for additional resources and solutions. Until that point, residents will continue to face this reality,” O’Banion said.

The letter sent to residents about the impending sale indicated that if the residents were unable to make the purchase, the current owner wanted to sell the land to someone who would maintain it as a manufactured home park.

“The Property Owner intends to sell Lakeway Mobile Estates to an owner/operator who would keep the property in its current use as a manufactured housing community vs. selling to a developer that might have plans to change the existing use of the property,” the letter states.

That appears to be the case, according to Mary Evitt, a six-year resident of the community.

“The new owners, Havenpark, took over March 20, distributing information about how they conduct business and stating their intention to continue to operate this site as a mobile home park. This alleviates our biggest fear of the property’s conversion to another use,” Evitt wrote in a statement to The Herald.

Evitt said the residents expect to see rent increases but hope they’re affordable for the seniors who live there.

“We are optimistic about building a good relationship with Havenpark and don’t plan to complain until there’s good reason,” Evitt told The Herald.

The city created protections for residents of manufactured home parks in 2022 in response to increasing concerns related to housing affordability and availability.

The Washington State Legislature then followed Bellingham’s model and enacted the protections as state law, which says that when a manufactured home park owner decides to sell, the land must first be offered for sale to the residents — though it’s never a guarantee.

Residents of the Samish Mobile Home Park in Bellingham were the first in the city to take advantage of the protections and successfully purchase their park this year with the help of ROC Northwest.

Bellingham has 10 manufactured home parks in the city.