‘I hope they are committed’: Will Boise mobile home park residents stay in their homes?

The city of Boise has purchased a mobile home park on the Bench in an attempt to preserve existing affordable housing. Residents are grateful they won’t have to leave but uneasy about what the future may hold and about the high cost of living in the Treasure Valley.

In March, the city arranged to buy the property for $3.25 million. Twenty-three tenants live in the mobile home park at 2717 W. Malad St., off South Vista Avenue and north of Shoshone Park.

A Thursday news release said the two-acre site, which is called the Sage Mobile Home Park, has 23 homes and three other spots for manufactured homes. About 26 people live on the site. The Ada County Assessor valued the land at $1.47 million this year.

In interviews with the Idaho Statesman, residents and family members said they worried when they heard the property was for sale earlier this year.

“I wanted to cry, because I’m like, ‘What’s going to happen to us?’” said Michelle Price Calderon, 30, who has lived at the mobile home park since she was 9 years old and now lives with her husband and children. She has lived in three mobile homes over the last two decades.

Price Calderon told the Statesman on Wednesday that she likes her home’s location, which is close to where her children go to school and other conveniences. She used to work in fast-food restaurants but is now raising her children full time.

Her husband works in construction in Nampa and has suggested before that the family move to Mountain Home, where living would be cheaper, she said.

“I don’t want to move from where I’ve lived my whole life,” she said.

Tenants interviewed by the Statesman said they owned their homes but not the land underneath, and pay between $400 and $450 in monthly bills for rent and other utilities.

Years of upwardly trending markets have turned Boise into one of the least affordable cities in the U.S. when comparing housing costs to local incomes. Median rent for a two-bedroom is $1,421, according to Apartment List. Real estate costs have soared.

‘It’s an immediate affordable housing project’

The City Council voted 4-1 in March to approve the purchase from the Betts Family Trust, with Council Member Luci Willits voting against it. Willits, a Republican, said she had concerns that removing property from the tax rolls would increase property taxes for other homeowners.

Other council members said the project would help keep existing low-cost housing available.

“It’s an immediate affordable housing project,” Council President Pro Tem Holli Woodings said in March.

“In my estimation, it prevents dozens of people from immediate homelessness should this piece of property fall into private hands,” she said.

As housing has become pricier in the Treasure Valley, mobile home parks — formerly, and often pejoratively, referred to as trailer parks — are being replaced with new development.

On Tuesday, the council voted to allow the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities, which help low-income residents find housing, to manage the property. In exchange, the property’s rental proceeds will go to the housing authority, according to a city memorandum. The memo refers to the arrangement as a “pilot project.”

The news release said the neighborhood has “best-in-class transit” on nearby Vista Avenue.

Lana Graybeal, a spokesperson for the city, told the Statesman by phone that the location of the mobile homes — near transit and a park — made the property especially attractive to the city. The city could look at future properties similarly.

“If others come up in the market for sale in this way, then yes, we would be interested,” she said.

What are the city’s plans for this home park?

Preserving affordable housing is part of Mayor Lauren McLean’s plan to allow lower-income people to live in Boise.

After finalizing its purchase, Boise plans to make repairs and, for now, to allow residents to stay.

“The city has no immediate plans to redevelop the park,” the release said. “Rather, in the coming weeks, the city will make repairs to the park electrical system and additional improvements to the lots and amenities to ensure no residents are displaced from their homes.”

‘We don’t know where she would go’

Elizabeth Cortes’s mother-in-law, who is 75, lives at the Malad Street property. Cortes told the Statesman that she was worried when she heard the property was for sale.

“We don’t know where she would go” if she had to move, Cortes said.

Price Calderon said that many of the property’s residents are elderly, and that she’d like to see the city do some upkeep on the property. The road needs work, she said, and residents have had mice and cockroaches.

She also said she hopes the city doesn’t turn around and sell the property.

“I hope that they are committed and that they keep their words,” she said.