When the chips are down, Paula Damke isn’t one for sitting by idly.

The news that broke in early June that the Swiss Village Mobile Home Park in Ouray was going up for sale rattled many of her neighbors. It created uncertainty because Swiss Village residents don’t own the land underneath their homes.

But for Damke, the second-longest tenured resident of the Oak Street community, it served as a call to action, a challenge to meet head on. She started making phone calls to affordable housing supporters and state officials who advocate for the legal rights of mobile home park residents. She’s talked with residents of four other mobile home communities in Colorado who found themselves in a similar position.

The result is that Swiss Village residents have officially formed a cooperative, with the ultimate goal of obtaining funding to purchase the land under their homes and become a resident-owned community.

“We have to do this. We’re going to do this,” Damke said Tuesday, sitting alongside her neighbors, all of whom were sporting T-shirts with “Swiss Village Strong!” emblazoned across the front. “It may take more time and effort than we thought. There’s no way we’re not going to be successful. That thought doesn’t enter my mind.”

From left to right, Swiss Village residents Paula Damke, Laurel Spence, Keith Spence, and Bob Angulo stand in front of Angulo’s home in the mobile home park in Ouray, located on Oak Street. The residents have formed a cooperative and meet weekly to work on moving forward with a plan to purchase the mobile home park, and wear shirts with a logo designed by resident Charene Angulo. Erin McIntyre – Ouray County Plaindealer

All but one of the 19 homeowners has joined the cooperative and paid a $25 membership fee. They formed a five-member board of directors, electing Damke as the president and Bob Angulo the vice president, and they meet weekly. They’ve also joined an association of resident- owned communities, ROC USA, and its Colorado affiliate, Thistle, a nonprofit organization that helps transition privately owned mobile home parks into resident- owned communities.

Mike Bullard, vice president of communications for ROC USA, said ROC works with a lending subsidiary known as a community development financial institution to assist would-be resident-owned communities.

They start by offering forgivable due diligence loans to cooperatives who can use that money to hire experts, including attorneys, engineers and appraisers, needed to secure financing to purchase a mobile home park.

If a cooperative moves forward on a purchase, the due diligence loan is folded into the acquisition loan. If it doesn’t, the loan is forgiven.

Rather than having to fork out a down payment that’s equal to 20 to 25% of the purchase price, Bullard said ROC lends up to 110% of the value of the loan, allowing mobile park homeowners to borrow far more than they could through a typical commercial real estate loan.

“Part of our mission is to put together the best financing package possible,” he said, whether that’s through ROC or another lending institution.

ROC USA and its affiliates work with 329 resident- owned communities in 21 states, including nine communities in Colorado. For Swiss Village to become the 10th, it must secure financing.

Under Colorado law, mobile home park owners must notify residents when they intend to sell the park and give them 120 days to make an offer to purchase the property themselves, paying fair market value. Owners must provide another 120 days for residents to close on the purchase. That means Swiss Village residents have until early October to make an offer.

The Swiss Village cooperative is now looking for any purchase funding it can find, whether that be grants, donations, loans or some combination of those. The owners of Swiss Village, Ross and Arlene Crawford, have listed the park for $3.95 million. That includes the 3 acres where 20 mobile homes are located, along with 13 acres of undeveloped land along the hillside to the west of the park.

Becoming a resident-owned community means Swiss Village residents would be able to set their own monthly rents and invest any revenue back into the community.

But in order to purchase the land, they don’t want to push lot fees so high that it becomes unaffordable for the residents. One option could be to sell the undeveloped 13 acres to a third party, though it’s not clear what that might look like.

“We’re pursuing all avenues,” Damke said.

Residents Keith and Laurel Spence admit the process is nerve-wracking.

They bought their mobile home in Swiss Village in January 2020 and moved from Grand Junction the following year, thinking it would become their forever home.

Damke feels the responsibility every day of making sure she, the Spences and others get to stay in their homes. She said they’ve received nothing but positive feedback and encouragement from the Ouray community.

“They’re good people,” Damke said, referring to Swiss Village residents.

“They’re part of Ouray. People need to appreciate that they’re here, they take care of their properties.”