Mobile home parks tackle septic, drinking water crises with federal dollars – New Hampshire Bulletin
When the North Country Village Cooperative asked the state for help with broken water and sanitation systems last year, the community it created was ranked 5th on a priority list.
57 homes occupy what was once a 1960’s three-season campground just a few miles from the beautiful expanse of Lake Winnipesaukee in the small town of Tuftonboro. The leach field systems malfunctioned and collapsed. Some required pumping every six months or less. Septic tanks were undersized.
Drinking water was a completely different issue. According to the project documents, the water system barely covered daily needs, and one of the wells developed “persistent bacterial contamination” in the past year. The decommissioning of the well only exacerbated the capacity problems.
The North Country Village Cooperative was one of more than two dozen prefab communities statewide to receive federal funding for drinking water and sanitation improvements. (decency)
Both the North Country Village’s water and sewage systems would need to be completely replaced before road repairs could be considered — a tightly coupled infrastructure that affects residents’ quality of life. Any attempt to address the problems would cost vast amounts of money.
“We have quite a large number of older people who are on Social Security,” said Peter Billings, president of the cooperative’s board of directors. “Not many people still working.”
This is where an unprecedented amount of federal infrastructure dollars has come in handy in recent years; in this case, empowering prefab communities to undertake critical projects to ensure the longevity of one of America’s few remaining affordable homeownership options.
There are 146 residential communities in New Hampshire with more than 8,800 affordable manufactured homes. These neighborhoods are owned and operated as non-profit organizations by the residents who live in them, as opposed to outside landlords.
Privately financed and kept affordable by private means, there is often very little money to meet significant infrastructure needs – even though they could be vital to residents’ health, the environment and their wallets in the long run.
“The issues aren’t just issues of economic return or building more homes,” said Sarah Waring, USDA state director for rural development for New Hampshire and Vermont. “These are often public health and safety concerns and environmental justice issues that need to be addressed.”
Accordingly a 2020 report by Fannie Mae, The median household income of residents who own manufactured homes is about $35,000, and more than a quarter earn less than $20,000.
Federal infrastructure investments enable these neighborhoods to build prosperity and resilience, Waring said.
“Big problems that require comprehensive solutions”
When residents like those at North Country Village take ownership of their park and form a cooperative, they inherit the infrastructure—in the condition the previous owner left it. In some communities, these owners have been diligent in maintaining water and sanitation over the years.
However, many neighborhoods suffer from system failures due to delayed maintenance and aging. The new resident owners – most of whom are on a fixed or low-to-middle income – are suddenly faced with a costly reality.
Sarah Marchant, Chief of Staff and Vice President of ROCK SMALLA New Hampshire Community Loan Fund program that helps residents of prefabricated home parks purchase the land beneath their homes, said these are “major problems that require comprehensive solutions”.
Prefab communities have been able to tap into other rural development funds US Department of Agriculture, Department of Housing and Urban Development and most recently by President Joe Biden $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The New Hampshire Department of the Environment also operates revolving state funds for sewage And drinking water projects and mMore than 20 homeowner cooperatives will receive a share of $31.3 million from her Program “Help for Disadvantaged Communities”. use American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
“This funding gives them the opportunity to level the playing field and start with a working system that meets their basic health, safety and water quality needs,” Marchant said. “It can be really difficult for these communities to raise, say, an extra million to make these improvements.”
North Country Village secured federal funding in a number of ways over the past year and is currently undergoing a complete overhaul of its water and sanitation systems. This includes drilling a new bedrock well and new leach fields, septic tanks and lines.
The Lakes Region community couldn’t be happier. According to Billings, North Country Village has one of the lowest monthly land lease rates in the state, and the financial backing for major projects allows them to keep it that way.
“We think that as a board, with proper care, we’re good for 20 to 30 years,” Billings said. “We’re in such a financial position that we can keep the credit going and contribute to an aggressive maintenance program on all of these things.”
When the drinking water and sewage works are completed, “we will get all the roads new”.
Federal investment in action
The water and sewage systems of most prefab communities were installed sometime after the Clean Water Act of 1972. Because many of them were “creatively built,” as Marchant puts it, by today’s standards they usually need to be replaced entirely.
The Colebrook Homeowners Cooperative, which is constantly leaking water, is among those receiving federal funding. Residents there are seeing extremely high bills “that aren’t based on consumption,” Marchant said. It is also an environmental concern and there is an increased potential for contamination.
Last summer, the State Congressional Delegation highlighted that more than $2 million will flow into the neighborhood of 47 properties that will help attract and house the local workforce.
A newly formed cooperative in Hollis is using $1 million in federal funding to address PFAS drinking water contamination discovered after the ownership transfer. A Raymond community is working to fix “a lot of leakage, a lot of spillage” that has led to “basic health problems,” Marchant said.
Last month, USDA’s Waring spent a day at the Woody Hollow Cooperative in Boscawen, where she said residents were “so pleased” with their recent improvements made possible by federal funding. Infrastructure was largely invisible and buried under the road, she said, but the impact was felt.
Residents have spoken of hosting a barbecue and parade sometime this summer.
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