FILE - A manufactured home in this undated photo of Hidden Village Mobile Home Park in Clark County provide by Evergreen Habitat for Humanity. The non-profit hopes to renovate current homes and build additional affordable housing.
Courtesy of Evergreen Habitat for Humanity
A nonprofit affordable housing developer is expected to close on the sale of two neighboring manufactured home parks north of Vancouver this month.
Evergreen Habitat for Humanity plans to fix up many of the approximately 60 mobile homes in the Hazel Dell parks and potentially build more affordable housing on the surrounding undeveloped land, 19 acres sandwiched between Interstate 5 and state Route 99 in a region struggling with a housing shortage.
The nonprofit plans to use $8 million in state funding to preserve this form of affordable housing in Clark County at a time when property rents are surging for mobile home owners.
The deal targets a slice of the housing market that’s lately attracted for-profit investors who often raise the rent on park spaces, despite tenants owning their homes. Buying up parks to keep them affordable will be a first for Evergreen Habitat. It also marks their largest project to date, said Heather Cochrun, the director of community engagement and impact.
“As a homeownership nonprofit, our focus would be on ensuring that folks are in permanently affordable units,” she said.
In recent years, the rent for the lots in some Clark County mobile home parks has more than doubled. Many of these parks are for 55-and-older communities where residents are on fixed incomes.
When it comes to new housing in the area, demand has been far outpacing supply, Vancouver officials say. Developers need to build more than 500 additional affordable housing units each year to keep up with population growth, according to the city’s 2025 Housing Report.
Both the City of Vancouver and the Clark County Council are trying to protect tenants in manufactured home parks from being displaced. Vancouver approved zoning changes to prevent redevelopment of these parks to other uses as part of its comprehensive plan, which took effect in August.
For its part, the Clark County Council is discussing zoning changes on unincorporated county land. A Sept. 14 public meeting will focus on strategies to preserve mobile home parks as part of the revision of the county’s 20-year growth plan.
The cost of lot rent at the two parks being purchased by Evergreen will be significantly lower than market rate, Cochrun said, though the details are still being worked out.
Like the nonprofit’s other projects, homeowners would have a 99-year land lease. If an owner moved out, she said, the unit would be reserved for another income-qualified buyer.
The two parks, known as Hidden Village 1 and 2, will be purchased for $12 million total, with $8 million coming from the Washington State Department of Commerce. Half is from the department’s Housing Trust Fund grant program and the other half is from a 2026 budget appropriation made by the state Legislature. An additional $4 million is from private donations.
So far, the reception from residents at Hidden Village 1 and 2 has been positive, according to Cochrun.
“We’ve been really blown away by how welcoming everybody has been,” she said. “And for some folks, just truly excited that they have somebody who cares again.”
