Highlights
- Involves creating and maintaining an in-depth inventory to track mobile home parks at risk of redevelopment as well as operating a network that focuses on the preservation of these properties
- Helps a city identify at-risk properties, prioritize investment of precious preservation resources, and lead proactive interventions to preserve mobile home parks
Steps to Get Started
- Create a city staff position or fund a nonprofit organization to develop an inventory of affordable mobile home parks that are vulnerable to shutting down.
- Recruit local affordable housing providers, city officials, tenant organizations, and other preservation stakeholders to meet regularly to discuss preservation opportunities at these parks.
Background
Texas has recently lost a number of mobile homes due to gentrification pressures, and many more are likely to be lost without intervention. Creating a local working group to monitor at-risk mobile home parks and coordinate proactive interventions can help save vulnerable parks. Preservation networks bring key stakeholders together on a regular basis to monitor at-risk mobile home parks, engage with tenants and property owners, and collaborate on proactive preservation strategies.
Best Practices
Suggested best practices for a preservation network include:
- Create and actively update an inventory of at-risk mobile home parks, with detailed information on code violations, zoning status, and other indicators of vulnerability (the Endangered report includes an vulnerability assessment of San Antonio’s mobile home parks; the metrics used there could provide a starting point for an inventory in other cities).
- Hold regular meetings with network members to discuss the at-risk mobile home park inventory and implement strategies for preserving the highest priority properties.
Examples
The following examples are of preservation networks that focus primarily on multifamily housing preservation: Washington, D.C. (DC Preservation Network); Colorado (Housing Preservation Network); Massachusetts (Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation–Interagency Working Group and Preservation Advisory Committee); Chicago/Cooke County, IL (Preservation Compact).