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Scattered thunderstorms early, then becoming mostly clear after midnight. Low 41F. NE winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Scattered thunderstorms early, then becoming mostly clear after midnight. Low 41F. NE winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

A crowd of locals gathered at FREIGHT Monday night for a screening of “A Decent Home,” a documentary film by Sara Terry that follows the lives of manufactured home residents throughout the country.

The film looks specifically at manufactured home communities that have gone up for sale. Residents of such communities might own their homes, but not the land beneath them, meaning that when property owners decide to sell, families can be – and have been – displaced from their homes.

One neighborhood featured in the film, Denver Meadows, closed in 2019 after owner Shawn Lustigman put the land up for sale, displacing nearly 100 families. Communities in Iowa and New Hampshire have faced similar challenges, and the residents of each neighborhood share stories that are heartbreaking and deeply aggravating.

But displacement is not always the outcome when property owners decide to sell.

In Leadville, residents of the manufactured home community behind Family Dollar are finally at ease after rallying to purchase the land beneath their homes which went up for sale at the end of last year.

Members of Cooperativa Nueva Union (CNU), the five-person board of residents that organized to help purchase the land, were in attendance at Monday’s screening. After the event, the board hosted a party to celebrate the neighborhood’s status as the first resident-owned manufactured home community in Lake County.

“We were kind of scared at first,” said Jose Sanchez, CNU treasurer and resident of the neighborhood for 30 years. “But now it’s like a weight lifted off our shoulders. Living in Leadville is an important part of my life and I’m glad I can stay here now.”

As shown by “A Decent Home,” manufactured home communities throughout the country are threatened by rising property values and personal greed, but the transaction in Leadville has largely been deemed a mutual success, both for residents and the former property owner. So what went right?

First, the neighborhood’s former owner, Matt Bransfield, deserves credit for working with CNU. Although Bransfield was mandated by Colorado law to grant residents the opportunity to buy the property, he was not mandated to accept their offer, let alone extend the negotiation period to give CNU more time to make an offer.

CNU also benefitted from a strong support group, as Sanchez pointed out Monday. Thistle ROC, a Boulder-area organization that operates under the national group ROC USA, was instrumental in the transaction, as were Full Circle of Lake County and other local groups.

Lastly, the residents themselves demonstrated a strong will to purchase the land. Residents volunteered to form CNU in a matter of days, despite maintaining jobs and caring for their families. Now that the sale is finalized, CNU continues to meet about street maintenance, sanitation and other matters pertaining to the neighborhood’s future.

In many ways, CNU’s success in becoming a resident-owned neighborhood contradicts the experiences in “A Decent Home,” but there are still similarities between the film and Lake County’s housing crisis, particularly the theme of displacement.

Thanks to an impressive collaborative effort, residents of the manufactured home community behind Family Dollar will remain in their homes, but displacement from other types of affordable housing in Leadville and Lake County is still occurring.

Just last week, Climax Molybdenum purchased the American National Bank Building on Harrison Avenue for temporary workforce housing and will not renew leases for current residents living in 15 of the building’s units.

Additionally, rising property costs are enticing local landlords to sell, and units that have long been deemed affordable, such as those at 921 Mt. Massive Dr., are now going for nearly $2,000 a month, according to Zillow.

This is not the first time that an editorial about the housing crisis has appeared on this very page of the Herald, but it might be one of the first to celebrate a vital win for affordable housing in Lake County. The Herald commends CNU and its members for the leadership they’ve shown over the last few months.

After Monday’s screening, Mayor Greg Labbe posed the question, “What’s next?” The response should have been simple: Avoid the fate of those neighborhoods in “A Decent Home” by adopting the urgency and tactics of CNU and its supporting groups to protect housing in Lake County.

The issue of housing is not going away, but the number of local residents equipped to tackle this issue and produce results is growing. Perhaps it’s time to include their voices in this conversation.

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