RESIDENTS SAY MOBILE HOMES NEED REPAIRS
Feedback shows majority of mobile homes in fair to poor condition
Boulder County officials recently surveyed hundreds of mobile and manufactured home park residents about their needs, wants and their level of satisfaction with their homes.
One of the most striking findings was that a majority (59%) said their homes were in fair to poor condition, and almost all said their homes needed multiple repairs. The survey results showed that mobile home park residents are disproportionately people of color, primarily Latinx, and that most households had household income that’s less than half of the median household income of $92,466 for Boulder County.
Many of the mobile homes are not in great shape because their age, according to Francisco Padilla, mobile home park program manager for the Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services.
“(These residents are) the folks that that are in service industries, and some of the lower-paying occupations in the county,” Padilla said. “Therefore, if something comes up, … it’s a lot of deferred maintenance, and they just don’t have the money.”
A main purpose of the survey was to help the county determine how to distribute funds from the Healthy and Resilient Mobile Homes Program. The program, an initiative of the Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services, aims to do needed repairs in manufactured and mobile homes and enhance health and safety, code compliance, energy efficiency and accessibility in these communities.
The terms “manufactured home” and “mobile home” both refer to factory-made homes, but the difference lies in their age. They’re called mobile homes if they were built before 1976, but those built in 1976 or later are known as manufactured homes, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.
The county partnered with the University of Colorado Boulder and El Centro AMISTAD’S Promotoras de Salud to create
and administer the survey. Officials spent from July through September of last year contacting residents in manufactured and mobile home parks in Longmont and Lafayette — two of the three Boulder County cities with the most parks. Boulder was not included, because the city conducted a survey of its own several years ago.
The survey questions asked about a variety of topics, such as demographic information, home ownership status, the condition of the home, the utility services and infrastructure in the park, and accessibility of public spaces.
About 1,000 residents were approached about taking the survey and 252 residents completed it, about a 25% response rate, according to Padilla. The people who responded live in 12 different manufactured and mobile home parks in Longmont and Lafayette.
Most of the respondents were women (67%) ages 40 and older (79%). A majority (66% combined) also identify as having Hispanic, Mexican, Spanish, Central or South American heritage, a larger proportion than in the general population of Boulder County. Slightly more than half of respondents said they mainly speak a language other than English at home.
Almost 70% of people who responded to the survey have a yearly household income of less than $40,000. Fewer than 10% have a yearly household income exceeding $60,000. More than half (53.15%) reported that they receive some kind of financial benefits, such as Social Security income, food stamps or retirement income. However, 90% of survey respondents also said they own, rather than rent, their homes.
“These are families that have settled in these communities. They are the working poor in the county, and they face a lot of challenges to stay afloat in a county where the housing costs are astronomical,” Padilla said. “… So in addition to some of the actual housing that Boulder County and the city of Boulder … have created, mobile home park communities are some of the last vestiges of affordable housing.”
Transportation access is a challenge for many residents in manufactured and mobile home parks, and some also face disruptions to utility services due to fluctuating prices and difficulties paying their bills. But a majority (55%) of survey respondents overall — and more than 70% in some communities — also said they regularly use bottled water, with some reporting issues with the taste and smell of their tap water.
Poor tap water quality in mobile home parks is a widespread issue in Colorado and across the country, according to reporting from the Denver Post. Padilla said in Boulder County, the infrastructure at mobile home parks tends to be old, and many of the parks are also privately owned. Government health departments test the water to make sure it’s drinkable, he added, but even if water meets health standards, it may still have an odd smell or taste.
Boulder’s 2019 survey results largely mirrored the county results in most areas. In the Boulder survey, 1,286 surveys were distributed and 249 were completed. One notable difference was that the four mobile home parks surveyed had a larger percentage (67%) of white-identifying residents compared to the parks in Longmont and Lafayette, and the Boulder survey also did not ask about water quality.
Healthy and Resilient Mobile Homes Program staff plan to use the results of the new survey to determine where resources are most needed. They will also work with residents and others in the community to create plans for addressing the problems identified in the survey.