Mobile home owners hope to buy properties
The following article appeared in the Sunday, July 19 Springfield Sun News. Toby Fey (ABLE) is interviewed in the story. Read below, or view the contents on the Springfield Sun News Web site.
Mobile home owners hope to buy properties
By Bridgette Outten
GERMAN TWP. — Some residents of three mobile home parks currently in foreclosure want more control over their future.
Dal-Mar, 1630 Baker Road; Rose Garden, 2744 Upper Valley Pike; and Happy Valley, 1750 Baker Road, are mobile home parks owned by Happy Valley Mobile Home Park LLC.
Wells Fargo Bank, which holds the loan on the three properties, filed foreclosure actions in April, alleging Happy Valley owes the bank more than $3.3 million.
The residents group — about 70 people and counting — is in favor of forming a nonprofit cooperative to own the land where the homes sit, said Toby Fey, attorney from Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE).
The following article appeared in the Sunday, July 19 Springfield Sun News. Toby Fey (ABLE) is interviewed in the story. Read below, or view the contents on the Springfield Sun News Web site.
Mobile home owners hope to buy properties
By Bridgette Outten
GERMAN TWP. — Some residents of three mobile home parks currently in foreclosure want more control over their future.
Dal-Mar, 1630 Baker Road; Rose Garden, 2744 Upper Valley Pike; and Happy Valley, 1750 Baker Road, are mobile home parks owned by Happy Valley Mobile Home Park LLC.
Wells Fargo Bank, which holds the loan on the three properties, filed foreclosure actions in April, alleging Happy Valley owes the bank more than $3.3 million.
The residents group — about 70 people and counting — is in favor of forming a nonprofit cooperative to own the land where the homes sit, said Toby Fey, attorney from Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE).
If the group succeeds, Fey thinks it could be the first time such an action occurred in Ohio. There is precedent for mobile homeowner cooperatives buying parks in New Hampshire, and that is the model the group would follow, he added.
The residents are concerned about what may happen to the parks if they are sold at a sheriff’s sale — and what would happen to their homes as a result.
“If the parks are sold, someone could buy it and throw us all out of here,” said Patti Mueller, who has lived at Rose Garden since February and says she wouldn’t have moved in if she had known Happy Valley hadn’t paid the mortgage since last November. “That’s why we need to buy this place.”
Since May, the group has been in the early stages of forming a co-op. They would have to incorporate as a nonprofit organization, elect a board of trustees to oversee it and adopt bylaws. As a nonprofit, the group would then secure a loan to purchase the parks and maybe a second loan to help with the down payment, Fey said.
Under resident-ownership, park residents control operations by setting park rules and rates for water, sewer and rent.
Bill Geniella, president of the Association of Manufactured Home Residents of Ohio (AMHRO) and who is also assisting the group, said there are other mobile home communities across the state considering co-ops.
In Clark County, the goal for the residents is to take care of their own.
“The co-op could save the parks for working families,” said Diana Taylor, a 10-year Rose Garden resident. “It would give us control of the checks and balances that are supposed to be in place.”
