LITTLETON, Colo. — In a quiet Littleton community off Sante Fe, a clubhouse once off limits to people living in Meadowood Mobile Home Park is now packed with people.
"Before, we weren't even allowed to use the clubhouse," said Sandy Cook, resident and board president for the community. "Now, we can do what we want inside."
The neighborhood calendar is filled with events ranging from Monday morning coffee club to community food banks.
On one particular Monday, a group of seniors gathered around tables drinking coffee and sharing stories of how far they have come in the last year.
"It's a great place to live," said Irma Karnes, 92. "So to me, it's been a miracle."
For Karnes and her neighbors, that miracle was the ability to come up with the money — $18 million — to buy their mobile home park rather than see it sold to a large corporation that they believe would have increased the rent to amounts that would have forced some to move.
And that miracle at Meadowood is not a standalone — multiple mobile home owners are taking matters into their own hands, and buying their own parks to control their own destiny if conditions deteriorate under corporate ownership.
Meanwhile, state regulators have made progress on investigating complaints and citing landlords after Denver7 Investigates reported on a significant backlog last year.
- Sandy Cook, a resident and board president at Meadowood Mobile Home Park, spoke with Denver7 Investigates about the relief of being a part of the new resident-owned community. Hear more from her in our extended interview clip below.
State regulators improve oversight
For years now, corporate owners have been buying parks across the state, and reports of neglect have become common.
Last year in Fort Collins, residents told Denver7 Investigates stories of skyrocketing rent, contaminated water and sewage leaks.
"It's foul. You're not supposed to live with raw sewage right underneath you," one resident said.
Watch our report from September 2024, where our investigative team spoke with vulnerable residents who were struggling with rising lot rent, contaminated water and leaking raw sewage.
A Denver7 investigation found that residents couldn't count on the state's Mobile Home Park Oversight Program (MHPOP) to respond.
Complaints from 2020 took an average of 937 days, or two-and-a-half years, to close. Last fiscal year, the program only issued two notices of violation.
For the past six months, Denver7 Investigates has been keeping tabs on the state's promise to catch up, and regulators are making progress.
New data released by the state showed that MHPOP has eliminated the backlog in complaints from the first four years of the program. Also, instead of taking two-and-a-half years to resolve complaints, the state has reduced the average time to 36 days.
It also issued 80 notices of violation against landlords.
Regulators and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' office declined requests for interviews. Instead, Maria De Cambra, executive director of the Department of Local Affairs, provided the following statement:
"Before our program, many mobile home residents felt they didn't have a voice. Now, we're ensuring their rights are protected. We've made huge strides in resolving complaints quickly and we’ve also eliminated a major backlog of cases, showing our commitment to this important issue. The constituents we serve are taking notice, as reflected in a recent Program survey where respondents expressed a 74% satisfaction rate, citing rapid responses and helpful service."
The increased responsiveness has not gone unnoticed.
"It's almost night and day compared to the beginning," said Tim Townsend, program director with Thistle ROC, a nonprofit that works with state regulators and helps mobile home residents buy their own parks.
"I have seen an improvement with the oversight program," Townsend told Denver7 Investigates. "I think the state had such a backlog because it was new. And I think that when you start anything new, there are growing pains. I think the state may have underestimated the amount of complaints and the amount of non-compliance, and so they had to learn how to pivot and expand their resources to take care of that."
But when it comes to solving corporate neglect at many of the communities across Colorado, Townsend said, there are still "leagues to go."
- Tim Townsend with Thistle ROC explained to Denver7 Investigates how mobile home residents across Colorado are beginning to buy their own parks. Hear him explain more about the nonprofit below.
A case study: The uphill battle to become a resident-owned community
At Meadowood Mobile Home Park, the 55 and older community in Littleton, stories of corporate takeovers followed by increasing rent and alleged neglect were the stuff of nightmares.
In January 2024, Havenpark, a Utah-based corporation that owns other mobile home communities in Colorado, made an offer to buy the property for $18 million.
"We knew the first thing they'd do was raise the rent and keep raising it," said Karnes, who has lived there for more than a decade. "I really did worry about it."
So, the seniors at Meadowood decided to join a growing movement of mobile home residents trying to buy their own parks.
"I don't think that anyone realized when we first started what an uphill battle it was going to be," Cook, the resident and board president, said.
After years of complaints regarding neglect and rent hikes in mobile home parks, Colorado lawmakers passed updates to the Mobile Home Park Act in 2020 and 2022, which make it easier for mobile home residents to compete against corporate buyouts.
Under Colorado law, owners are required to notify tenants if they intend to sell, giving residents the right to make an offer. Owners must then accept the offer if it matches the corporate bid.
Thistle ROChas helped 12 parks become Resident-Owned Communities (ROCs), with two more set to close in the coming months.
"In some ways, it's like a last frontier of affordable housing," said Townsend. "This is a solution. This is a way for them to come in and have control over their community [and] over their rules. I'll say with our recent community, Meadowood in Littleton, they came in and they fought tooth and nail."
After a year of fighting, the Meadowood group of seniors succeeded where other parks had failed, making that $18 million offer that couldn't be refused.
"It took us seven financial backings to be able to buy this park," said Cook.
The Meadowood Cooperative is now owned by every person who lives there.
"It was just a weight off of our [shoulders] that we could buy it and be happy here," said Karnes.
But to pay for the loan, the rents would have to go up, said Cook, and that would have to go to a vote.
"Every single person voted for it. It passed unanimously," said Cook. "This is about us staying together. For me, it is critical that this park stay as it is now and to not raise the rent next year. So, that's our goal. You'll have to come back next year and see if we make it."
