After an article about the venture appeared in a statewide paper and she was flooded with calls about evictions so landowners could sell to developers, Eades realized the problem was  "systematic rather than a one-off." In l988, after it financed the second ROC in the state (one in which the cooperative had engaged in a protracted legal battle for its right to own the park), NHCLF made its real mark.

It worked closely with Elliott Berry, managing attorney of the Manchester office of New Hampshire Legal Assistance, who convinced the state legislature to pass two laws. One required park owners to give residents 18 months notice before closing a park or evicting residents due to a planned change of use. And the other required them to provide residents notice of a proposed sale and to negotiate with them in good faith so they could buy the park.

"It basically let homeowners be part of the transaction in a way they were completely excluded before," Eades recalls. "It was not a right of first refusal. But because we're so active, it operates similarly to a right of first refusal because many sellers don't care who they may sell to as long as they get their price."

Since l988, NHCLF has organized and financed 101 more ROCs. It isn't easy and not all succeed. But when they do work, studies show, residents not only take control of their future but they plant more flowers, attend more school conferences and the like. In short, they tend to take care of the property and become community members.

And while a 2006 study showed property values increasing 12.5% per year, a study NHCLF commissioned this summer showed that manufactured homes in ROCs are still appreciating at 3.5% per year.

Throwing Away The Blue Book
According to McCarthy at the Ford Foundation, there are more low-income people living in manufactured housing than in all the country's subsidized housing programs.

But while manufactured homes are high quality these days--there have been housing codes since l976, and many are green and energy efficient--the terms for loans have been abusive. In 2003, NHCLF began making loans on manufactured homes in ROCs with a view toward system-wide change.

According to Eades, banks don't make loans on manufactured homes for "structural" reasons (the loans are too small, there is no secondary market and no mortgage insurance.) When loans are available, she says, the interest rates are exorbitant and terms limited to 15 years.

But the biggest problem, she says, is that the financial system treats manufactured homes like cars by appraising them on a blue book model. And she says loans are not available at all if the home is more than ten to twelve years old. This means, of course, that a homeowner does not have an asset that is growing in value or even maintaining its value. And it also means that a homeowner was not able to sell a home unless it was virtually brand new.

"We treat [a manufactured house] like a house, because it is a house," she says. "We get an appraisal. And we don't discriminate against a house based on its age."