Helping people stay in the community with Habitat homes!

A Habitat home makes sure that people can stay in their communities! Meet Karen Campbell. She has lived in the Ponderosa Mobile Home Park in north Boulder for 25 years and will be the owner of a Flatirons Habitat home there!

Our service area has one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. As a result, many people feel priced out.

Karen has lived in the Boulder area for over 30 years and works for CU Boulder. She is considered low-income by the city's standards. However, she could live in Ponderosa, a community she has described as being historically affordable. Places like the mobile home park are especially important as cost of living has continued to increase.

“The lot rent has been affordable if you are comparing it to other (Homeowner Associations) even or even mortgages,” Karen said. “Ponderosa Mobile Home Park has been here a long, long time."

But, the mobile home park suffered from aging infrastructure and old homes. Without that community, it would be tough for residents like Karen to live in the area. The city of Boulder has updated infrastructure at Ponderosa and is working with Flatirons Habitat, who will build new homes there.

Residents will have the opportunity to stay in their existing homes or choose a new one built by Habitat. Our build there is a gradual one, eventually replacing old homes with new ones. So far, we started work on a triplex as well as two other single houses.

Karen will be moving into one of the units in the triplex. She described the process of purchasing her habitat home as relatively easy and stressed to future Habitat homeowners the importance of establishing a connection early on.

As part of the process, Karen has helped in the construction of the first Habitat homes in Ponderosa. The triplex she'll live in will be our first completed home there as we expect to finish it this year.

“It’s building the community,” she said of her time helping build homes at Ponderosa.