NCF completed its first co-op conversion in 2004 in partnership with the residents of Sunrise Villa Cooperative, a 44-unit manufactured home park in Cannon Falls, MN. In 2008, NCF joined as a founding affiliate of the ROC USA® Network, a national social venture advancing resident ownership of manufactured home communities, or Resident Owned Communities (ROCs). Since then, NCF has preserved 13 manufactured home communities and 1,100 affordable homes in transactions valued at $33 million.
This year, NCF worked with the residents of the Woodlawn Terrace manufactured (“mobile”) home community in Richfield, Minnesota, to purchase their community and become Minnesota’s tenth Resident Owned Community. With technical assistance from NCF, Woodland Terrace families came together to secure a loan, collectively purchase their community, and form a self-governing cooperative, the new Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative. In an interview with ROC USA, Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative Board President Bev Terrace said, “People here had lived for 10 years in fear of their park closing, from redevelopment or whatever….they were sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for a developer or a takeover. So when the co-op idea came up, they were thrilled."
NCF’s innovative coop model of homeownership makes homeownership a reality for many who could not otherwise afford to buy, keeping families in their homes and housing costs stable, restoring ownership and control of manufactured housing communities to their rightful owners, and empowering residents to invest in their communities.
The new homes will provide additional income for the co-op, while providing new affordable homeownership opportunities for households who would otherwise be unable to afford to buy in Richfield. The Woodlawn Terrace transaction is the thirteenth such project for NCF and brings the total number of resident-owned manufactured home sites in NCF’s network to over 1,000.
In 2021, four out of five manufactured home sites sold went to out-of-state investors. Resident-owned communities across our state are helping to preserve this critical source of affordable housing for Minnesota's families.