It’s hard enough to afford or rent a house in Denver, let alone an entire trailer park.
But residents of an RV park in Westwood are trying to raise $11.5 million to buy the land their homes sit on.
If they don’t make it in the next three months, they risk losing their home.
The owner wants to sell the property because of retirement plans, but for the people who live here, this is their home and the fear of losing that space is real.
The community at the Capital Mobile Park home in Westwood is 95% Latinx, immigrant families, the disabled, veterans and elderly.
One of those residents fighting for their home is Armando Anguiano.
“This is my retirement home for my wife and I,” Anguiano said.
For 23 years, Anguiano has called his unit home. Here he and his wife raised their children and his grandchildren are now visiting them.
“I’m really saddened by the situation we’re in, but God willing, we’re going to stay here and keep fighting to stay here,” Anguiano said.
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Residents of all 76 homes on the property are also working to keep their homes on the RV park property.
For months, they’ve been working with nonprofits and organizations like Resident Owned Communities to buy it. But after pulling out due to a building code issue, residents are back at the drawing board.
Andrea Chiriboga-Flor of 9to5 Colorado is the project lead for the legal program and has helped lead this effort.
“They canceled their contract in February, so we were basically trying to figure out who could be an interim owner or who could also help in general with making loans or grants to raise that funding,” Chiriboga-Flor said.
Last month, residents received notice of the possibility of buying the land.
Now they have until August 17 to get at least 51% of residents to agree to buy the park and make an offer to the landlord.
“We don’t need to have all the funds raised by then, but we’re trying to secure at least a few loans so we can show the landlord that we’re really interested and that we’ve made some progress,” Chiriboga-Flor said.
If residents can demonstrate by August 17 that they have secured some funding, the landlord must give residents an additional 120 days to raise the remainder of the funding.
It funds residents like Armando who hope to secure themselves soon so they don’t have to leave their homes.
Residents held a community meeting with a potential interim owner on Thursday evening and voted on whether to take this opportunity with this organization.
In the next few weeks, the organization will decide whether it can take over this.
In 2022, the Colorado legislature passed a bill that would require someone selling an RV park to give residents advance notice and give homeowners an opportunity to make an offer to purchase the park.
