The following is a transcript of the video above, from our webinar “Remaking the Economy: Co-op Ownership of Mobile Home Communities.” View the full webinar here.
Kelly Jensen: Being a part of resident-owned community, we’re in charge of everything we do. It’s a business. It’s no longer just there’s an owner out there that’s going to tell us what to do.
We are now the owners. So, we have to make our rules, we have to make our bylaws, and we have to make sure everybody follows those. If there’s something that just doesn’t fit in with what’s going on, we have the right to change that. We can make it fit what we need to have done.
“You know your neighbors. You watch their animals, they watch yours. You help them shovel sidewalks. It’s just a good place to live.”
It’s so nice to be able to say we haven’t had to raise our rent for two years because we’ve got a budget. We stick with that budget. And we’re way below any other housing costs here in Colorado. Colorado’s terrible. Close to me, a one-bedroom apartment is over $1,600 a month. We have kept our lot rent down to under $700 a month. So, there is quite a bit of difference there.
We can have a whole family for less than what a one-bedroom apartment can rent for. And like I said before, you know everybody in this community. You work together. If we know we’ve got streets that need to be repaired, we work to try to get that done.
We’ve got a building that needs to be painted. Everybody said, “Can I help?” That’s something that you don’t get in a lot of other places, but you do get here.
There’s a lot of advantages. You know your neighbors. You watch their animals, they watch yours. You help them shovel sidewalks. It’s just a good place to live. A very good place to live.
