Longmont staff recommends $305,000 housing-fund shift for mobile-home park effort

Longmont staff recommends shifting $305,000 from a reserve for the 19th and Terry Street project, including $30,000 to study a possible resident purchase of Mountain View Mobile Home Park. About 80 senior residents are organizing an offer by mid-January, a Nov. 17 City Council memo says.

If approved, $275,000 would go to down-payment assistance, $30,000 to due diligence and $195,000 would remain in the 19th and Terry reserve. The City Council is scheduled to consider the amendment at a second reading Nov. 17.

Residents received a notice of intent to sell in September and have 120 days from the notice to organize and submit an offer and purchase-and-sale agreement, according to Colorado’s Division of Housing. Longmont staff puts the deadline in mid-January. The memo says the desired purchase price is $17 million.

The proposed due-diligence funding would cover technical assistance, an appraisal, a capital-needs assessment and legal services—not the purchase itself. Staff says Thistle Resident-Owned Communities may front its technical-assistance costs, with reimbursement at closing if a purchase proves feasible. Colorado’s Mobile Home Park Acquisition Fund offers acquisition loans to eligible resident homeowners or nonprofits, and the state lists technical-assistance awards through Thistle. These are possible avenues, not funding commitments for Mountain View; applicants must meet program requirements.

Longmont’s draft housing-needs assessment estimates that 49% of renter households are cost-burdened and that the city has a shortage of 3,041 rentals affordable to households earning below half the area median income. It also estimates the city needs 4,279 additional homes through 2035 to address current shortages and projected growth. These are citywide estimates, not projections of the Mountain View purchase effort’s outcome.