exchange 5: The ground beneath their feet
Presenters: David Bunce (Flinders University, Australia), and Paul Bradley, (Founding Preasident, ROC USA™)
Place: AHI, 38 Chauncy Street, Boston, MA 02111
Date: September 17, 2009
Printable flyer here.
The Ground beneath Their Feet
Relocatable homes parks, manufactured home estates, mobile home parks, or trailer parks; these are all terms used to reference manufactured home communities (MHC). Regardless of nomenclature, the traditional model in which land and infrastructure is owned by investors and the homes are owned by residents, has proven problematic. In fact, as land use pressures mount and land values rise, residents have little protection against increasingly frequent park closure. The availability of financing is often limited and, in most jurisdictions, the homes are considered chattel, not real estate.
In spite of this, manufactured homes are still the largest source of unsubsidized owner occupied affordable housing in most regions in the United States and other countries, and a growing section of the market. Therefore recent attempts in the US and Australia to address issues of legal status, ownership congruity, resident empowerment and access to finance are important to understand. They also can provide insight into analogous situations in the developing world, where homes are often constructed by residents on land that is not their own.
What are solutions to the problems identified in the MHC and the challenges ahead? What are the underlying assumptions that inform and drive systems change and development? Hear two committed advocates of the MHC movement, from the public and the private sectors, compare and contrast their experiences with the parallel experience of the informal settlements in the global south. |
Previous Exchanges: 1: Leading from the Pack: Peer-Group Networks as Change Agents 2: The Community's Role in Complex Urban Redevelopment 3: Lucky You: Dealing with Legacy Inventory 4: Local Autonomy vs. State Controls in Urban Planning 5: The Ground Beneath Their Feet |
Australia
David Bunce , has a professional background in local government in Australia. Since 2004 he has been studying and teaching at Flinders University in Adelaide. His PhD work is on social capacity building in affordable housing communities, including manufactured housing on which he has conducted research, delivered lectures and presented papers. In 2008 David made a public submission to the Development Policy Advisory Committee of the South Australian Government advocating the permanent zoning of residential parks and improved legislation for residents.
USA
Paul Bradley , is a social entrepreneur, founding president of ROC USA™ an organization that offers training, networking and financing to help owners of manufactured homes gain security through ownership of their communities. Prior to his appointment at ROC USA, he served as Vice President for the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund (NHCLF), where he managed and grew the Loan Fund’s 24-year old Manufactured Housing Park Program (MHPP) by expanding its cooperative development program and initiating single-family lending and new production.
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