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From Vermont to Montana, officials and residents in manufactured housing communities are working to mitigate flood risk.

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By Sarah Amandolare

5 MIN READ

Jan 3, 2023

Charlotte Bishop was standing at her kitchen window in when she saw water streaming into her yard. A block of ice had clogged the brook that snakes around the mobile home park where she and her husband Rollin live in Brattleboro, Vermont. Ice jams are not uncommon in Vermont, but the heavier rains and earlier winter thaws鈥攂oth related to climate change鈥攚ill in communities near rivers and streams. Bishop grabbed her keys and rushed outside to move their cars to higher ground. Within minutes, she was wading through knee-high water. 

Bishop lives in Tri-Park Cooperative, Vermont鈥檚 resident-owned mobile home community. The co-op represents a crucial source of affordable housing for about 1,000 residents, but many of its lots are vulnerable to flooding. Bishop says her property has flooded about five times since the early 2000s, and while their home has been spared thus far, she still worries. 

鈥淚 get paranoid, because I don鈥檛 want to lose everything,鈥� she says. 

Now, the Bishops have the option to move to higher ground. In partnership with the Town of Brattleboro, the co-op has organized a $7.9 million effort to relocate 26 homes out of the flood zone, and into new mobile homes in safer locations within the park. Their out-of-pocket mortgage expenses won鈥檛 change, according to the development firm working on the project. 

More than Americans live in manufactured housing鈥攁lso known as mobile homes鈥攚hich costs about per square foot as traditional homes. Across the U.S., biased zoning has sited many manufactured housing communities in precarious 鈥渇ringe environments,鈥� such as floodplains and fire-prone urban edges, according to , a climate adaptation researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. In Vermont, researchers found that of mobile home communities are at least partially in FEMA-mapped floodplains. 

Now, many of those communities are grappling with how to keep their communities safe, without driving up costs for residents, who often own their home and rent their lot. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has funded research on tornado-vulnerable mobile homes in , and recently granted toward climate resilience research on mobile homes in Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire. And in Montana, where 10% of houses are mobile homes (compared to 5.5% nationwide), one nonprofit in the city of Great Falls is elevating lots above the floodplain. 

Projects like this can take years of planning. Tri-Park鈥檚 has been in the works since 2008, when the town of Brattleboro agreed to finance loans for water and sewage system upgrades if the co-op agreed to relocate flood-vulnerable homes. 

But residents still need to decide whether to leave their current homes, and that鈥檚 鈥渁 deeply personal choice,鈥� says Kelly Hamshaw, a lecturer at the University of Vermont who focuses on housing and disaster resilience.

Despite their flooding concerns, the Bishops are not planning to relocate because they don鈥檛 want to downsize from their four-bedroom home. The new homes will only have two or three bedrooms and less outdoor space. They鈥檝e worked hard over the years to clear brush from their lawn and plant gardens, and often host their daughter and grandchildren when they visit from upstate New York, which they said wouldn鈥檛 be possible in a smaller home. Rollin, a retired veteran who works part-time for a restaurant, worries the relocation project will push out young, growing families.  

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e talking about is turning this into a senior park,鈥� he says. 

Down the street from the Bishops, Richard Matteson and his wife Sandy have been living in their mobile home since 1988. Their peaceful lot has broad views of the hillsides behind the park, but it also abuts the brook. The Mattesons, who are both retired and have mobility challenges, are planning to accept the relocation offer, as long as their costs won鈥檛 change. Matteson says that they鈥檝e been evacuated 鈥渢hree or four times because of flooding and ice jams鈥� over the years. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 happening more often than it used to because of climate change, and I think it鈥檚 going to get worse instead of better,鈥� he says.

A New Model for Mobile Home Buyouts 

As residents decide whether to relocate, officials involved in the Tri-Park project hope it could represent a model for other flood-prone communities that wouldn鈥檛 benefit from standard FEMA buyouts. 

Homeowners are typically reimbursed for 75% of the appraised value of their home. But for the owners of older or damaged mobile homes, that amount usually falls short of their actual relocation costs, according to Stephanie A. Smith, a state hazard mitigation officer at Vermont Emergency Management.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 where Tri-Park comes in, as an example of a new model for buyouts within mobile home parks, centered around making people whole and making sure they have somewhere to live that鈥檚 safer and more resilient,鈥� Smith says. Tri-Park residents each pay the same monthly rent to the co-op for their lot鈥攁n amount that won鈥檛 change for those who relocate鈥攁nd the cost of their new homes will be covered by Vermont鈥檚 new , rather than FEMA. 

In May 2021, Vermont officials allocated $4.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to the fund, followed by an additional $14.75 million in 2022. Led by Vermont Emergency Management, the fund will help pay for flood-mitigation projects, like the Tri-Park relocations and buyouts for mobile-home owners whose moving costs wouldn鈥檛 be covered by a standard FEMA buyout. 

That approach is inspiring ongoing climate change resilience research in Montana. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 been a decade worth of work by researchers, nonprofits, and state agencies in Vermont to get to this point where the state is actively getting folks out of harm鈥檚 way,鈥� says Kristin Smith, an economic geographer in Bozeman, Montana. 

In her research with the nonprofit Headwaters Economics, Smith found that more than mobile homes in Montana are situated in high-flood-risk neighborhoods鈥攕omething that the state has been waking up to. After the Yellowstone River flooded a mobile home park in in June鈥攁n event scientists linked to 鈥擬ontana鈥檚 requests for federal aid 鈥渟pecifically called out mobile homes as an area that we鈥檙e concerned about,鈥� Smith said. 

The community of Glendive, Montana, is 鈥渢aking the flood risk to mobile home parks really seriously,鈥� Smith says. The levee protecting the mobile home park from the Yellowstone River is 鈥渢oo short for the expected flood risk,鈥� she explains. The Army Corps of Engineers is exploring options such as raising the levee, or pushing it back to create more space for the river. 

About six hours west, in Great Falls, Montana, the nonprofit NeighborWorks Montana is guiding a relocation effort at another flood-prone mobile home park, . The organization has raised philanthropic and nonprofit funding to elevate the vacant lots above the floodplain, one by one, and then make them available for new residents. There are no plans to elevate lots where current residents live, which means most residents will continue living in a floodplain, according to Maiden. Flood risk is something that 鈥渇olks who live in manufactured housing have gotten used to,鈥� she says.

Back in Vermont, Matteson wonders why anyone was allowed to move into the low-lying areas of the Tri-Park Cooperative in the first place. 

鈥淭hey never told us when we bought this place that it flooded here,鈥� he says. 

During the ice jam of 2019, when the roads around their house flooded, Matteson and his wife had to be rescued by a maintenance worker in a bucket loader. Their 5-year-old granddaughter was with them that day and was also rescued. Now, he鈥檇 rather move than worry about having to be rescued again. 

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have much choice in the matter really,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檇 just stay here and float away.鈥� 

This article o in and was made possible by a grant from the Open Society Foundations. is an editorially independent, nonprofit news service covering climate change. Follow .

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