ROC Rises Above the Storm
With extreme weather events increasing and government funding shrinking, the Community Loan Fund and mission-aligned partners are working together to make resident-owned communities in New Hampshire and Vermont more prepared. A severe storm that hit Tanglewood Cooperative in Keene last year reinforced how critical it is for ROCs to be prepared for the future.
Since an intense storm in July 2024 struck Tanglewood Cooperative in Keene, the resident-owned community has adopted a motto: “Rise above the storm and you will find the sunshine.” It’s what they’ve done, together, for more than a year as they worked to restore their safety.
Tanglewood resident Sharon Melendy won’t soon forget the night of July 16, 2024, when the storm hit. She had never seen anything like it: dark clouds, thunder, branches blowing, and then hundreds of tall pine trees tumbling to the ground across the 99-acre park in just a few minutes.
“We heard trees crashing around,” recalled Sharon, who is the administrative manager of the park. “We ran outside… and we checked everybody's house that got damaged — made sure everybody was okay.”
Approximately 50 of the 319 manufactured homes in the park were damaged during the storm and 10 of those were red-tagged by the Keene Fire Department — meaning for structural reasons, those homes could not be lived in until they were repaired or, in a few cases, replaced.
After the storm, residents came together to support the families who lost their homes. The Cooperative’s board also had to figure out how to remove the 600 trees that had fallen on homes and streets or were deemed dangerous. Two hundred trees were dealt with right away.
Though Tanglewood had an annual tree budget of $60,000 and capital reserves in place, it wasn’t enough to remove the rest of the trees. And the damage assessment wasn’t high enough for families or the park to qualify for emergency federal assistance.
The city of Keene, American Red Cross, and community organizations including the Lions Club also helped with resources, and Tanglewood residents organized their own fundraisers, like selling t-shirts with their motto, to support their neighbors who had homes damaged during the storm.
Then Monadnock United Way, with New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and Community Loan Fund, launched a fundraising campaign to help the community expedite tree removal work before snow and ice hit.
By this past spring, Sharon and Karen were relieved that the cooperative had raised $130,000 in donations, removed another 250 trees, and made it through a cold, windy winter without further issues. They will continue to monitor and remove trees while balancing safety and the cooperative’s budget.
“It feels really good to know that there are so many people in this community who are supportive and out there when people need help,” Karen said.
Since voting to form a cooperative in 2019 and working together to purchase and operate the park, Sharon said Tanglewood Cooperative has grown into a close-knit community. The recovery proved that it lived up to its goals.
By this past spring, Sharon and Karen were relieved that the cooperative had raised $130,000 in donations, removed another 250 trees, and made it through a cold, windy winter without further issues. They will continue to monitor and remove trees while balancing safety and the cooperative’s budget.
“It feels really good to know that there are so many people in this community who are supportive and out there when people need help,” Karen said.
Since voting to form a cooperative in 2019 and working together to purchase and operate the park, Sharon said Tanglewood Cooperative has grown into a close-knit community. The recovery proved that it lived up to its goals.
Partnerships Amplify Mission to Create ROC Resiliency
We know residents in our 152 ROC are already strong — they’ve persevered to keep their communities affordable and locally owned.
But we want to make sure all our borrowers are ready for future challenges, from extreme weather to failing infrastructure.
That’s why we work with mission-aligned partners to improve regional collaboration and support research on this often-overlooked housing sector that will help make ROCs more resilient.
Mary Stampone, New Hampshire state climatologist and associate professor of geography at the University of New Hampshire, is one of six researchers working across three academic institutions to find out how residents of manufactured-home communities in Maine, N.H., and Vermont are vulnerable to climate-related extreme events.
“We expect more extreme weather to occur more frequently in the future in response to climate change,” she said. “Storms are getting stronger.”
The group is developing a database of manufactured-home communities across the three states — because one doesn’t currently exist — to help improve regional coordination among a network of partners (including the Community Loan Fund) to anticipate and respond to climate-related hazards.
“These [weather] events impact those communities differently and we need to figure out how to better serve them,” Mary said.
Kelly Hamshaw, research specialist at the University of Vermont’s Center for Rural Studies, also worked on the project with Stampone.
“I think the work that you all do at the Community Loan Fund … really sets the standard for how communities can have greater agency over what's going on in the places they call home, and can take these strategic actions, like having reserves to be able to either take action before a hazard, to make some improvements in resilience, and prep and prepare,” Kelly said.
The project allows partners to better understand the needs of manufactured-home communities and how connections can be made to get homeowners more services. Climate and weather hazard data can also help communities with risk reduction, mitigation, and planning.
Lessons Learned will Help ROC Network Weather Storms Ahead
Looking back on how far they’ve come, Karen said Tanglewood’s experience offers lessons to the state’s other ROCs.
“I think all the other ROCs need to know that they need to have some monies in reserve for emergency situations, because you never know when something like this is going to happen,” she said. “So having that capital reserve fund set aside is beneficial.”
To help resident-owned communities become more resilient, our ROC-NH team coaches communities to develop and update their capital improvement plans (CIP). Many government grants require a CIP to be in place to receive funding and the process prepares communities to plan and save for future needs, including infrastructure improvements and tree removal.
In recent years, we’ve also reorganized our ROC-NH team to offer more specialized resources to ROCs:
- Our infill specialist helps ROCs place new homes in their parks, increasing the supply of affordable housing and adding to park revenue;
- Our infrastructure projects specialist helps ROCs identify, finance, and manage much-needed infrastructure repair and upgrade projects;
- Our energy projects specialist identifies opportunities for energy saving solutions and on-site energy creation.
Our goal with these positions is to help ROCs respond to the challenges they face today and prepare them for new challenges they may face in the future so that they remain financially, environmentally, and socially strong.
We’re also changing the way we provide regular training to ROCs on topics like capital improvement plans so more cooperatives can receive high-level expertise from our team.
Together, with resident-owned communities like Tanglewood and advocates like Mary and Kelly, we’re making progress toward a more resilient future for resident-owned communities.
99
Acres in Tanglewood Cooperative
319
homes in park
50
homes damaged by storm
600
trees damaged during storm
$100,000+
Funds raised to reestablish safety in Tanglewood