Providing support for the creation of manufactured home cooperatives : lessons for Austin, Texas community institutions

Manufactured housing is a housing type which theoretically offers an unsubsidized, permanently affordable housing supply to low- and moderate-income households. However, several factors lead to it being considered an undesirable housing type such as stigma, landlord mismanagement, potential displacement, and loss of home equity. Additionally, much of the current supply stands to be lost in growing cities where former manufactured home communities are being redeveloped into more profitable ventures. Community land trusts (CLTs) and resident owned communities (ROCs) offer two models for preserving manufactured home communities and addressing the concerns above to create truly affordable, desirable places to live. By reviewing existing iterations of these models as well as the existing array of organizations in Austin, Texas, it appears that both models may be good fits in the local context.