Community Development Research at IssueLab

in community stories, Housing

IssueLab archives, distributes, and promotes the research produced by nonprofits. It archives hard-to-find research from small community-based organizations as well as large think tanks. Here are some research papers in its Community Development selection.

Demonstrating Our Values, Impact and Effectiveness: Final Report of the NeighborWorks Community Organizing Pilot Program. Contributing Organization(s): Neighborworks America

Intersection: Taking it to the Street. Contributing Organization(s): The McKnight Foundation

Resident Involvement in Community Change: The Experiences of Two Initiatives. Contributing Organization(s): Public/Private Ventures

Resident Participation: A Community-Building Strategy in Low-Income Neighborhoods. Contributing Organization(s): Neighborworks America

The Best of Both: Community Colleges and Community-Based Organizations Partner to Better Serve Low-Income Workers and Employers. Contributing Organization(s): Public/Private Ventures

Residents take over mobile-home park

in community stories, Housing

After four months of living in campers, motels and rentals, residents of Mountain Springs Villas Mobile Home Park in Red Lodge may be days away from moving home.

But it won’t be the same old neighborhood. Gone are the dirt streets and ugly power lines. Homes no longer sit haphazardly on cluttered lots, their foundations resting on bare ground. And when residents pay their monthly $235 for a space, the money goes not to a landlord, but to the residents’ association to which they all belong.

“Oh, it’s beautiful compared to what it was,” said Tami Hoth, one of the residents who helped organize rebirth of the 30-unit mobile-home park. “It was kind of the forgotten part of town.”

During a flurry of construction this summer, streets were paved, curbs and gutters installed, concrete foundations poured and sewer, water and utility lines were buried. Eleven of the 26 resident families will be moving into new mobile homes, 10 of them thanks to the efforts of District 7 Human Resources and Development Council, Hoth said. Only four spaces in Mountain Springs are vacant.

And it didn’t cost the city of Red Lodge a dime, said Mayor Betsy Scanlin, who is almost as excited about the project as the residents. Grants and loans covered the approximately $3.4 million in costs with a little in-kind help from the city.

Getting the grants

NeighborWorks, a nonprofit housing program headquartered in Great Falls, and HRDC “really started us on the right track,” Hoth said.

NeighborWorks hired Flynn Consulting of Helena as grant writers. Three grants resulted, Hoth said. The first was $450,000 to help buy the property. A $15,000 grant paid for planning and a preliminary plat. A $500,000 grant covered infrastructure improvement including paving, water and sewer and underground electric and gas lines.

A private loan and a Montana Board of Housing loan helped pay for the rest, said project administrator Julie Jones, owner of Single Tree Consulting in Bridger. Residents were also able to find help through the Montana Homeownership Network and the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s HOME Investment Partnership Program, she said.

The best part of the project is that residents will not have to worry again about a landlord selling the ground out from under them, Scanlin said. They will have ownership through the association.

“They are going to have equity in their property now,” the mayor said. “I’m just delighted.”

A Community Development Block Grant helped find families places to live and pay for their temporary housing, Jones said. The grant also paid for some of the construction work.

Read the full story: Residents take over mobile-home park with government help. By Lorna Thackeray