Impact Investing

Home ownership. It’s woven into the American experience but has proven elusive for many.

Against all odds, a small group of mostly farmworkers in Fresno achieved what seemed like a nearly impossible dream. They were able to cooperatively purchase their manufactured (mobile) home community.

The journey to home ownership began when a new investor acquired the Fresno mobile home community and lot rents went up 57% in addition to new water and trash fees. More than 80% of the residents make half of the area median income. With the increased costs, residents feared loss of their homes and being displaced. They started working together and searched for ways to save their homes.

ROC USA and its Community Development Financial Institution subsidiary, ROC USA Capital, are a national social enterprise model that provides financing and technical assistance to residents of manufactured home communities, enabling them to cooperatively purchase, own, and manage their communities. It worked with the residents of the 60-home community and assisted them in buying the Fresno property for $7.6 million last year. Formerly Shady Lakes Mobile Home Park, the residents renamed their community Comunidad Nuevo Lago.

“This is a dream,” said resident and board member Juanita Pérez Sierra. “The people who live here are very humble and hardworking. So, to become the owners of the park where they live and to be able to take part in the decisions and the rules here, it’s something I haven’t fully wrapped my mind around yet.”

ROC USA, working with its affiliate, the California Center for Cooperative Development, was able to make the resident purchase with the help of The California Endowment. The Endowment provided a program-related investment of $6 million and a grant of $800,000 to help ROC USA support Comunidad Nuevo Lago and other parks across California. ROC USA did not just invest dollars but also engaged with the residents to offer extensive education ahead of the purchase to ensure that they know how to run a cooperative and to learn how to govern and control the property. “In California alone there are 7,000 manufactured home communities. Many are the lowest income homeowners and they’re completely vulnerable because they don’t own the land
where their homes sit. For us, this is an incredibly smart and effective use of impact capital and
public subsidy dollars,” said Emily Thaden, CEO, ROC USA.

The purchase of the property provides long term housing security and generational wealth building.

“Through the experience, banding together to acquire their community and collectively govern -democracy in action- they’ve built so much social capital and cohesion,” Thaden said.

ROC USA currently boasts more than 340 manufactured home communities that have been purchased and removed from the speculative real estate market.

ROC USA is now working in California on another resident purchase of the Alisal Country Estates in Salinas. Thaden said these homes tend to be the most affordable housing in the market and views the investments as a homelessness prevention strategy.

Investing in real estate projects that provide significant community benefits and strengthen the local economy drives Los Angeles based Primestor, an investor and real estate developer founded more than 30 years ago. The developer focuses on revitalizing urban areas and building community projects in areas that are often overlooked.

“We see real estate as a way to foster local economic empowerment, with real estate that’s designed and implemented with the community and by the community with a very focused and intentional community engagement process,” said Tomas Landes, director, Investment Management, Primestor.

The developer incorporates extensive community outreach on its projects, spending 6, 12, even 18 months in the process listening to and learning from residents beforehand.

The California Endowment made a mission-related investment of $4 million with Primestor as it represented a unique opportunity to support much needed affordable housing, retail, and job creation across low-income communities in California.

Investments with organizations like Primestor and ROC USA align with The California Endowment’s mission. In November 2023, the Endowment committed to begin the journey of moving its investment assets to align with its mission and values.

Primestor is now working on “The Walk” project in Norwalk that will have 374 residential units and about 90,000-square-feet of retail space. The entire project is a live, work, play project with nearby transit in a community that has not experienced much retail or residential investment in the last decade. Working closely with the city, Primestor engaged community members in a steering committee on the project for more than a year to learn what was important to them. Groundbreaking is expected in mid-2025.

“We have groups of investors very aligned with the impact and sustainability elements of our philosophy and together we created a really strong group of stakeholders that want to see our communities succeed and want to invest in these projects,” said Landes.

“Ultimately, we care about how we grow and support communities that are being left out of economic growth and inclusivity and so developed a business model that is working and want to grow it.”

Primestor estimates that in Los Angeles county it has generated approximately 5,000 local construction jobs and 9,000 local permanent jobs. “Both of these investments demonstrate our commitment to affordable housing and not just in the way it’s been done but affordable housing that’s more centered in community,” said Amy Chung, managing director, Impact Investing, The California Endowment.