Spring Break
Livelihoods of mobile home residents threatened
TABITHA KEILY
News Writer
Issue date: 12/3/07 Section: News
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One of these problems is the closure of mobile home parks, which is taking place at a rapidly increasing rate.
Boise State University recently sponsored a report, titled "Mobile Home Living in Boise: its uncertain future and alarming decline."
It investigated the issues that arise from the closure of mobile home parks and gave recommendations to the Boise City Council on how to combat these problems.
Research for the report concluded that one in 25 homes in Boise is a mobile home and two thirds of mobile home residents do not own the land on which their home rests.
This is the root cause of the current mobile home crisis, because when the mobile home parks are sold, the residents have no choice but to leave their home.
Director of the Center for Idaho History Todd Shallat was the principle investigator for the report.
"The price of land is rising rapidly in Boise" Shallat said. "The [mobile home] parks are being sold to developers to build conventional houses and shopping centers."
Shallat says this issue of mobile home residents being displaced is not just an issue in Boise, it is happening all over the nation.
"At least 20 million Americans live in mobile homes" Shallat said.
Mobile homes are a low-cost alternative to traditional houses or apartments. For decades Boise residents have chosen to live in them, for a variety of different reasons.
Often mobile homes provide people with more space than an apartment, and allow for a garden.
There are also less strict applications for living in a mobile home park, making it easier for people to gain residence there.
Many of Boise's mobile home residents are elderly; half are over the age of 60.
Nearly half are also disabled or have serious medical conditions.
Most of these people have lived in their mobile homes for decades and are not able to move them. Once their mobile home park is sold they are forcibly made homeless.
"The most immediate problem is that winter is coming and people get kicked out of their homes," Shallat said. "If they don't own the home they have 30 days to leave, if they own the home it's longer."
Sometimes developers or the city can pay to have a mobile home park relocated to an area where land values are not so high.
This is one option to help people who cannot afford to leave their home and move into an apartment.
Housing cooperatives are another solution to the problem of these displaced residents.
If their park goes up for sale, homeowners can choose to collectively buy the land.
This is a viable solution and there are agencies across the nation to help homeowners band together and try to get loans.
The report addresses the problems that rising land values can have for mobile home residents and suggests a variety of options to deal with the dilemma of park sales.
Hopefully the recommendations made will help to alleviate some of the problems that surround this issue.
"Mobile Home Living in Boise: its uncertain future and alarming decline" can be viewed at www.boisestate.edu/history/idaho/MobileHomes_Boise.pdf.
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