MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho — A group of neighbors are making sure their affordable community in Elmore County stays affordable.
They bought their manufactured home neighborhood, Hamilton Place, with help from LEAP Housing, the local chapter of a national nonprofit whose entire mission is doing just that.
"It's a gift," board president Barry Shanahan said. "It's nice to know that for the future, we have a nice spot."
This is Idaho's third resident-owned community. Shanahan said they had no choice but to take their future into their own hands after realizing the park was going up for sale.
"We would have been emptied out into the system, with the rents being so high, the sale of a house is so crazy," he said. "It shows in the economic climate that we have that there can be affordable housing."
LEAP Housing helped the community secure a loan earlier this year through ROC USA.
Everyone living there pays $100 for a membership; their monthly rent of $450 goes toward paying off the roughly $1 million loan, housing specialist Karen Christianson said.
"Every single person resident in this park is an owner," she said. "It's really the stability that being a ROC brings and the security of knowing that they're never going to lose their home."
While Christianson said more parks are being bought up and sold off for development, turning a community into a ROC is not always possible.
She said takes a willing seller.
"Hamilton Place associates were the original owners, and they actually reached out to LEAP," she said. "So, it started with that, having a seller that was willing to be mission mindset and do the hard work, because it's not an easy transition to accommodate this."
She also said the state legislature must do more work keeping Idaho affordable. Right now, the Gem State has just $11.81 per resident to work with.
"I'm a firm believer, if you give a person the stability of a house and a home and know that they're not going to lose that, that's the first launching point for everything," Christianson said.
Shanahan said he is grateful everyone gets to stay in their home, especially considering moving their homes would be next to impossible, if not impossible, for most residents.
"I look at all those people that don't have to move, they don't have to go anywhere, they're secure," he said. "Every day they get up, they don't have to worry about the threat of their place being gone."
Their monthly rent will also go toward improving the park. There are nearly two dozen manufactured homes, two rental units and a grocery store.
Shanahan said they hope to get their 11 vacant spots up to snuff as soon as possible so that more people can move in.
People who move out get their $100 back. Hamilton Place does not know when it will pay the loan off.
People who would like information on living in Hamilton Place or are interested in learning more about becoming a ROC should contact LEAP at info@LEAPHOUSING.ORG or 208-391-2823