{"id":74378,"date":"2019-09-15T03:46:18","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T09:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mobile-home-dwellers-left-behind-after-2013-colorado-floods\/"},"modified":"2019-09-15T09:46:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T09:46:18","slug":"mobile-home-dwellers-left-behind-after-2013-colorado-floods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mobile-home-dwellers-left-behind-after-2013-colorado-floods\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile home dwellers left behind after 2013 Colorado floods"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In
In this photo from Sept. 13, 2013, Fred Rob sits in the doorway of his home, destroyed by floods that left Lyons in a shambles.<\/span>Brennan Linsley\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAll of it was just mud,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt was so dark in there because of the mud. It was like walking into a horror movie because it used to be so bright.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mobile home was trashed after the torrential September rains sent water crashing over the banks of the North and South St. Vrain creeks.<\/p>\n

\"In
In this Aug. 23 photo, Amanda Anderson stands on the porch of her new house in Lyons. Her mobile home was destroyed during flooding in 2013 and she was not able to rebuild it when Riverbend Mobile Home Park subsequently shut down. When a flood hits a mobile home park, an array of factors works against them ever reopening.<\/span>Michael de Yoanna\/KUNC public radio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Water rose at the confluence, flooding low-lying homes across the small mountain town north of Boulder.<\/p>\n

Some homeowners returned, but that was never an option for Anderson and her neighbors at Riverbend Mobile Home Park. Their chances of a comeback were diminished before the first drop of rain hit the ground, according to Andrew Rumbach, an associate professor of urban and regional planning who studies mobile homes and natural disasters at the University of Colorado-Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see a historical pattern in Colorado \u2014 and every other state \u2014 where low-income housing is often located on low-value land, which tends to be flood prone,\u201d Rumbach said.<\/p>\n

Once a flood hits a mobile home park, an array of factors works against them ever reopening, he said. That includes policies that drag out rebuilding and legal squabbles between landowners and officials tasked with charting recovery. Even the idea that people who live in mobile home parks are transients is a factor, when they actually were long-time residents contributing to their communities.<\/p>\n

All of those factors played out in mobile home parks after the 2013 floods. The state\u2019s \u201cAfter Action Report,\u201d published in 2015, tallied 1,882 structures as destroyed. But it did not provide a breakdown of the homes lost in mobile home parks, where many of the flood\u2019s most economically vulnerable lived. That\u2019s an important detail to know, Rumbach said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy virtue of living in a mobile home park and not having claim to that land, your voice in the recovery in many ways was reduced,\u201d Rumbach said, adding that many mobile home parks are communities in themselves and if parks didn\u2019t reopen, entire neighborhoods were lost.<\/p>\n

\"In
In this Sept. 13, 2013, file photo, Chris Rodes takes a break while helping salvage a friend\u2019s belongings after floods left homes and infrastructure in a shambles in Lyons.<\/span>Brennan Linsley\/Associated Press file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In just three communities \u2014 Lyons, Evans, south of Greeley, and Miliken, southeast of Loveland \u2013 the researchers tracked the destruction of 273 mobile homes, most of which were never rebuilt or replaced because parks failed to reopen.<\/p>\n

Riverbend\u2019s owners converted it into an outdoor wedding venue with overnight lodging \u2014 tiny homes that can be wheeled away in case of another flood.<\/p>\n

Such closures and conversions made it harder for displaced mobile home park residents to actively participate in rebuilding their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw, even if they were displaced an hour away into a different community, their ability to travel and advocate for themselves during the recovery was much lower because they have a much higher burden in terms of work and in terms of the cost of travel,\u201d Rumbach said.<\/p>\n

He added that \u201ccommunities were often able to treat mobile home park residents as something of an other, as existing outside of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson felt the sting of such judgment at times. She recalled one moment at a town recovery meeting not long after the flood: \u201cSomeone had made a comment and she referred to us as trailer park people and every mouth dropped, like, \u2018Did you just say that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

During it all, Anderson held out hope that somehow she would rebuild her tiny oasis with its apple tree, raspberry bushes, garden, and neighbors always ready to lend a helping hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my gypsy wagon down by the river,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cI was going to stay there forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 1976 Skyline mobile home was also Anderson\u2019s hedge against the Front Range\u2019s skyrocketing housing costs that have climbed even higher since the floods struck Lyons. As a mom studying art at CU-Boulder and working at a coffee shop, she secured the place with her savings and a little bit of bargaining. Anderson\u2019s lot fees for the mobile home park were just $430 a month in a town where rentals are hard to find and can cost three to five times what Anderson was paying.<\/p>\n

Town Administrator Victoria Simonsen said the loss of mobile home parks was a hit on the economy. \u201cOur community is really feeling the impacts of not having a working class,\u201d she said. \u201cOur main street has more openings now than it did in the last recession and businesses are saying we have no workers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the town\u2019s Board of Trustees has made affordable housing its No. 1 goal, since the flood, Simonsen said achieving that goal \u201chas been very, very challenging in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, residents of Lyons voted on a measure that would have created 60 affordable housing units to offset the loss of about four dozen mobile homes. Voters were asked if they would convert five acres of a 25-acre park into a neighborhood where those homes would be built. The measure lost narrowly as opponents campaigned for the cause of open spaces and parks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was devastating,\u201d Simonsen said. \u201cIt was the low point of the recovery for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In
In this 2013 photo, Lyons Town Administrator Victoria Simonsen looks at a area map of properties that were destroyed or damaged during catastrophic floods in 2013.<\/span>Michael de Yoanna\/KUNC public radio<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In late August, workers were putting the finishing touches on baseball fields where that neighborhood would have been.<\/p>\n

One block off Main Street, the foundations of houses are tell-tale, raised as a defense against any future floods. Next to some of those houses sit vacant lots. Homes there were demolished when owners took federal buyouts that bar homes from ever being built in the flood-prone areas.<\/p>\n

Those who owned houses were eligible to receive the pre-flood market value of their losses. Mobile home park residents typically received less, the mere salvage value of their destroyed homes. Anderson said her recovery money was helpful, but paying high rents in Lyons ate up a lot of it.<\/p>\n

This summer, she finally got that forever home to call her own in Lyons. Boxes sat unopened on the floor. A few of her paintings adorn the walls. Anderson sat in her kitchen, saying how grateful she felt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is completely odd to me,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

This is the first time she has lived in a new home. It\u2019s a cozy, 1,200-square-foot condo.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I live in a mansion,\u201d Anderson said, adding that she feels lucky because a lot of the former mobile home park residents she knew left the region to find somewhere they could afford.<\/p>\n

Her home, and five others like it, were built by the local Habitat for Humanity. They represent a small dent in the town\u2019s need for affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Simonsen wants to make a bigger dent. She has her eyes on a parcel high above the floodline, with a great view of the mountains. It was set aside long ago for potential development. Now the town has stepped in with the goal of turning it into a neighborhood of affordable homes, much like the one that voters killed in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is it,\u201d Simonsen said.<\/p>\n

This is the last big recovery project on her long list \u2014 an array of 40 single- and multi-family affordable homes. Ground is expected to break later this year. The first door should open to a family next year. Simonsen is working with developers to see that mobile home park residents displaced by the 2013 floods get first consideration, if they\u2019re interested in coming back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

this photo from Sept. 13, 2013, Fred Rob sits in the doorway of his home, destroyed by floods that left Lyons in a shambles.Brennan Linsley\/Associated Press \u201cAll of it was just mud,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt was so dark in there because of the mud. It was like walking into a horror movie because it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1413,5469],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-74378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-mobile-home","tag-parked"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74378"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=74378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}