When Joyce Manning would try to drive home last year, a ride down her street would hardly be considered driving on a road. Instead, it was a pot-hole riddled stretch of pavement that had disintegrated into a dirt road. In the winter, it’d be a sheet of ice. In the summer, water would pool in the holes, inviting mosquitos to make themselves at home. 

Along the main street in Woody Hollow, a resident owned manufactured housing cooperative in Boscawen, a water line had been patched seven or eight times. As it began to rust, residents were getting sick from the bacteria. And the water leaks came with a price tag of $40,000 annually, to stick a Band-Aid on the ongoing problem. 

Now the park has new street signs and fire hydrants. Newly paved roads cover the pipes that were replaced, this year, improving the park's waste water management system. But it took six years to line up the funding for the infrastructure project – with Manning applying for grants from state and federal agencies, like USA Rural Development. 

Now the federal agency hopes to continue to support affordable housing projects like Woody Hollow – with the environmental impacts of poor infrastructure, residents’ health and the economic viability of these housing developments, all interconnected issues. 

Woody Hollow 

With lot rent of $285 a month, Woody Hollow offers one of the lowest rents for resident owned manufactured housing cooperatives, according to Manning. 

For owners of a single wide manufactured house, mortgage payments hover around $400 to $500 a month. Alongside the lot rent, that is below median rent in the area – certifiably one of few affordable housing options left in a market where home values are high, and rental vacancy rates are low. 

“It is some of the only affordable housing left for folks," said Sarah Waring, the State Director for Vermont and New Hampshire for Rural Development through USDA. “The housing market is so tight. Imagine looking for affordable options like this where the infrastructure exists.”

In 1994 Woody Hollow residents formed a cooperative and bought the housing park when the owner put it up for sale. 

Statewide, the Community Loan Fund has helped 145 resident cooperatives purchase their park since 1984. It’s common practice in the state, as investors target land for developments nation-wide. 

And it ensures affordable living for residents. When a park is resident owned, it means the community sets the lot rent, maintenance fees and other rules through bylaws that are enforced by an elected board. 

In 2014, Manning decided to run for board president in Woody Hollow. Her main priority – fixing the crumbling roads and leaking pipes. 

Piecing together the funding 

When Manning became president of Woody Hollow, she knew there would be grants available to help fund infrastructure improvements. 

The park had just paid off its mortgage and she knew the Community Loan Fund could point her in the direction of different options for financing this new endeavor. 

That was six years ago. With the pandemic and a dispute with the town water department, it took far longer than Manning anticipated to piece together the funding for the project.

And in the end, the park received $1.3 million in grants from the USDA, to focus on waste water and disposal, and Community Development block grant funding. 

The rural development division of USDA also contributed $956,000 to the project and the park also took out a $156,000 loan, to be paid back over 30 years at a 1.125 percent interest rate. 

“All the stuff I did was an awful lot of work. I have tons and tons of paperwork,” said Manning. 

But now Woody Hollow’s project can serve as a roadmap for investing in other Resident Owned Communities (ROC.) 

“I would love to get more ROCs using our water and wastewater programming,” said Waring. “For rural development, the environmental impacts, the individual impacts, and then also ultimately cost savings – All of these things are really exciting for us and seeing a project.” 

Investing in the community 

There are obvious benefits to the new roads and pipes at Woody Hollow. Now residents don’t have to worry if they’ll skid off the road, with an iced over driveway, or if the four-decade old fire hydrant would work in case of a fire. 

But there is also a return of investment to the park’s finances, with savings on water bills and repairs. 

Now they have a rainy day fund in case of other emergencies. And the park was able to purchase one of the few lots that was privately owned – meaning the owner did not want to join the cooperative – in cash when it was for sale earlier this year. 

And they’re redoing the lot, with interest from potential buyers. Currently, the park has a waitlist for prospective residents. 

“You'll see people driving in here this year looking for a house, coming to check it out,” said Manning. “Especially since we've had all the infrastructure.” 

And in piecing together the financing – and teaching herself about the accounts and paperwork necessary – Manning hopes to help other resident owned communities take on similar projects. 

This project helped strengthen her community – at a time where residents were her main support system, after her adult son passed away last year. Her fellow board members helped her grieve, and the project gave her a focus as well. 

“If it hadn’t been for my vice president, or the treasurer, they checked on me every day and said ‘do you have any paperwork to do?’” she said. “They kept me going.” 

Next, Manning would love to see solar panels in the community. Or to make a community space for residents to gather. Right now, those events happen in her front yard. 

It used to be known in Boscawen that the roads were bad and it was tough to drive through Woody Hollow. Now, the park is a model for effective affordable housing in the state – with a strong community at the center.

“People say to me, ‘why did you do this? Why did you spend all this time?’ and I say, ‘I live here. It’s my home’,” said Manning. “If I can benefit myself and everybody else around me, it’s a no brainer." 

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