RAYMOND, N.H. — Homeowners in Paradise Ridge Mobile Home Park have purchased their 40-unit manufactured home community, making it New Hampshire’s 135th resident-owned community (ROC) and the 268th ROC nationwide.
Using training and technical assistance from the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund’s ROC-NH™ team, homeowners organized and formed Paradise Ridge Cooperative last September. The cooperative then negotiated with the park’s owners, Albert and Joyce Witham, reached a $2-million purchase price, and finalized the deal March 26 with financing from Cambridge Trust and the N.H. Community Loan Fund. ROC-NH is a ROC USA® Network Certified Technical Assistance Provider.
“I am proud and excited that we have worked hard to become a resident-owned community,” said the cooperative’s vice president, Mike Dudley, an 18-year resident of the community.
“As Paradise Ridge Cooperative, we are looking forward to working together to be an efficient and beautiful community. We give special thanks to ROC-NH for the assistance in making this endeavor possible.”
Paradise Ridge Cooperative is Rockingham County’s 23rd ROC. Those communities contain 1,458 permanently affordable homes.
The nearly 8,300 homeowners in New Hampshire’s ROCs, spread across every county, also have access to management guidance, technical assistance, and leadership trainings in which they earn college credit.
For 38 years, the Community Loan Fund has worked in towns and cities across N.H. to connect people and families with the loans, training and advice that allow them to have affordable homes, secure jobs and quality child care, and become economically stable.
Building off the N.H. Community Loan Fund’s success, ROC USA Network has expanded resident ownership opportunities to 19 more states since 2008, preserving affordability for an additional 10,000 homeowners.