September 2011 eBlast

Welcome to MHOAA’s September 2011 eBlast. Please consider forwarding this eBlast to all the members of your homeowners’ association and other interested individuals. I also encourage you reprint these eBlast in your home owners’ association newsletter.

MHOAA National Convention – We anticipate a great attendance from all across the country at this year’s annual convention, including new faces from Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. I look forward to providing you with an in-depth report at the end of October. If you still plan to attend the Convention – the theme is: “MHOAA – Advocating for a Secure Future” then please register on-line as soon as possible (www.mhoaa.us) – space is limited and filling fast! You may still be able to reserve a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Silver Spring at the discounted rate of $105/night but this rate is now only subject to room availability. Call 1.866.829.4126 and provide the code “MHO” to secure a room.

Good luck to our new friends in Missouri – MHOAA staff have been working with the Center for Community Change and legal services attorneys in the City of Columbia as they work with homeowners there who are trying to save their community from being sold for the development of student housing. Here is a link to a media story: Regency Park story .

We hope to have one of the homeowners from Regency Mobile Home Park attend the MHOAA Convention to give us an update on their struggle.

Last word for September - Congratulations to the homeowners at Wonderland Estates in King County WA. Wonderland Estates is a 109-pad mobile home park whose tenacious, tight-knit community did everything in its power to save their mobile home park a few years ago. Now that it’s been saved (King County Housing Authority (KBCA) bought the community in 2007), KBCA is doing its best to really turn it into a “wonderland.” Had it not been saved, most of the residents would have lost their homes.

The KCHA board of commissioners recently authorized a financing package to renovate Wonderland Estates, particularly the ageing infrastructure. The financing uses a combination of federal tax benefits to investors along with state, county and KCHA resources. The transaction allows KCHA to leverage up to $4 million in private equity for infrastructure and common space improvements at the mobile home park.

Additionally, since lack of financing is the biggest impediment to people who want to purchase manufactured homes, KCHA is also partnering with the Boeing Employees Credit Union (BECU) to provide low-interest loans to finance the purchase of mobile homes for qualified low-income seniors.

I hope to see you at the Convention –