Boulder County officials recently surveyed hundreds of mobile and manufactured home park residents about their needs, wants and their level of satisfaction with their homes.

One of the most striking findings was that a majority (59%) said their homes were in fair to poor condition, and almost all said their homes needed multiple repairs. The survey results showed that mobile home park residents are disproportionately people of color, primarily Latino, and that most had household income that’s less than half of the median household income of $92,466 for Boulder County.

Many of the mobile homes are not in great shape because of their age, according to Francisco Padilla, mobile home park program manager for the Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services.

“(These residents are) the folks that are in service industries, and some of the lower-paying occupations in the county,” Padilla said. “Therefore, if something comes up … it’s a lot of deferred maintenance, and they just don’t have the money.”

A main purpose of the survey was to help the county determine how to distribute funds from the Healthy and Resilient Mobile Homes Program. The program, an initiative of the Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services, aims to do needed repairs in manufactured and mobile homes and enhance health and safety, code compliance, energy efficiency and accessibility in these communities.

The terms “manufactured home” and “mobile home” refer to factory-made homes, but the difference lies in their age. They’re called mobile homes if they were built before 1976, but those built in 1976 or later are known as manufactured homes, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

The county partnered with the University of Colorado and El Centro AMISTAD’s Promotoras de Salud to create and administer the survey.

About 1,000 residents were approached about taking the survey, and 252 residents completed it, about a 25% response rate, according to Padilla.

The people who responded live in 12 manufactured and mobile home parks in Longmont and Lafayette.

Boulder was not included, because the city conducted a survey of its own several years ago.

Most of the respondents were women (67%) ages 40 and older (79%). A majority (66% combined) also identify as having Hispanic, Mexican, Spanish, Central or South American heritage, a larger proportion than in the general population of Boulder County. Slightly more than half of respondents said they mainly speak a language other than English at home.

Almost 70% of people who responded to the survey have a yearly household income of less than $40,000. Fewer than 10% have a yearly household income exceeding $60,000. More than half (53.15%) reported that they receive some kind of financial benefits, such as Social Security income, food stamps or retirement income.

However, 90% of survey respondents also said they own, rather than rent, their homes.

“These are families that have settled in these communities. They are the working poor in the county, and they face a lot of challenges to stay afloat in a county where the housing costs are astronomical,” Padilla said.

Transportation access is a challenge for many residents in manufactured and mobile home parks, and some also face disruptions to utility services because of fluctuating prices and difficulties paying bills. But a majority (55%) of survey respondents overall — and more than 70% in some communities — also said they regularly use bottled water, with some reporting issues with the taste and smell of their tap water.

Boulder’s 2019 survey results largely mirrored the county results in most areas. In the Boulder survey, 1,286 surveys were distributed and 249 were completed.

One notable difference was that the four mobile home parks surveyed had a larger percentage (67%) of white-identifying residents.