“We own it” can mean many things, but for homeowners in resident-owned manufactured home communities, it means taking back control and ensuring a more stable future. ROC USA® and its affiliates have been enabling residents to take control for decades. Beginning in the 1980s, co-ops were used to bring resident ownership to the community—the residents purchase the land and become owners of the park through a cooperative. Limited-equity co-ops have low-cost shares and help provide permanent affordability to the residents as the land is not used as a profit center but as a community asset to support the residents’ housing needs. These co-ops were initiated in New Hampshire by the nonprofit New Hampshire Community Loan Fund and in California, where a state program supported low-cost share co-ops. In the 1990s, New York and Massachusetts began promoting low-cost share co-ops. Minnesota followed in the early 2000s.
ROC USA developed its national network of nonprofits and national source of capital to make limited-equity co-ops viable nationwide, launching in May 2008. The Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) was there early on, supporting the development of resident-owned communities, or ROCs, through grants to ROC USA and its affiliates to support the technical assistance needed to convert investor-owned parks to resident-owned communities.
Homeowners in the communities ROC USA supports are proud of their ownership and what it means for their futures. As Thomas Evans, board president of Two Rivers Community, a 59-home ROC in Lolo, Montana, said, “Before the purchase, you would see people who were staying in their lanes, head down and trying to stay afloat. And there were people who I didn’t even know lived here. But now we have common ground and an understanding for each other. … This isn’t just about money or business—it’s about people’s lives. … To be able to have this togetherness, it kind of pulls at the heart strings.”
“This isn’t just about money or business—it’s about people’s lives.” – Two Rivers Community Board President Thomas Evans