To the editor:

Leighah Beausoleil’s Feb. 13 article “Royal Crest keeps rents down and spirits up” highlighted the community initiatives and support networks that have been instrumental in homeowners improving their own neighborhoods. These are efforts that homeowners really only feel comfortable undertaking when they own the land beneath their community. 

Royal Crest is a prime example of the transformative power of resident ownership in manufactured home communities. With control of the land that residents in every other neighborhood take for granted, homeowners in resident owned communities (ROCs) like Royal Crest begin to enjoy stable site fees and long-term security. They gain confidence to invest in their homes, yards and neighborhoods without fear that some day they’ll be forced out when the land is sold out from under them.  

ROCs like Royal Crest are a crucial, though often-ignored, piece in solving the country’s affordable housing crisis. We’re seeing a growing trend of recognition of ROCs’ role as public investment in their preservation grows. Massachusetts was on the leading edge of this trend when the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) put $1.9 million in Affordable Housing Trust funds toward Royal Crest Residents Association’s purchase in 2022. More recently, Texas, Minnesota and Colorado have stepped up to stabilize these kinds of neighborhoods.  

Resident ownership in manufactured home communities thrives thanks to the hardworking homeowners who live there, coaching and support from Cooperative Development Institute, and policymakers who move past the outdated stereotypes around this housing stock and the people who live there.  

Sincerely,

Mike Bullard

VP, Communications

ROC USA, LLC

mbullard@rocusa.org