Bev Adrian has served as the President of Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative in Richfield, Minnesota, since 2021, when 75% of the residents voted to become a cooperative.
Now resident owned, Woodlawn Terrace is a manufactured home park. Manufactured home parks provide locations for affordable housing units. Many have mobile homes, but Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative uses stationary houses.
While it only recently became a cooperative, Woodlawn Terrace has existed for decades. According to the 2021 news post “Woodlawn Terrace Secures its Future” from the city of Richfield’s official website, the first houses in Woodlawn Terrace community date back to 1937. In 1978,Tom Price purchased the park. He owned it until 2020, when he decided to sell. Adrian then spearheaded the initiative to switch to a cooperative ownership model.
Adrian has a longstanding interest in cooperative housing. In 2008, Adrian lost her home in Shady Lane Park in Bloomington, Minnesota, after the park was sold to an investor, only two weeks after her purchase. As a result, that park tried to become a cooperative, but was unsuccessful. The 2008 PBS documentary, American Dream Under Fire, highlighted Adrian’s advocacy with Shady Lane Park.
On Wednesday, November 20, 2024, I visited Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative to interview Adrian about her story.
The decorations in her home included multiple Bob Dylan posters– Adrian assured me that she is a huge fan. She immediately provided a hospitable environment, offering to brew tea or coffee. We took a seat at her kitchen table, a kettle on the stovetop.
I asked her to share a summary of her journey to become President of Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative.
Adrian began, “The story starts 17 years ago. I bought a brand new double y mobile home in Bloomington, Minnesota, and two weeks after I purchased that property, the park owner announced that the park was closing, and it lit a fire under my…” she paused. “Hat.”
The community formed a residents committee, with Adrian as President. “It was Shady Lane. We tried to become a cooperative, and we were unsuccessful. So the Park did close, and I had to move my home out of the property.”
Fortunately for Adrian, she still had a house in Bloomington, which she shared with her daughter and grandchildren. In 2020, however, Adrian decided she wanted to move out. She found the listing online for her Woodlawn Terrace home. The same afternoon, Adrian visited the park, and bought the house within five minutes of seeing it. Love at first sight.
However, after her experience with Shady Lane, Adrian was cautious. When she applied for residency with the park owner, Tom Price, Adrian told him about her experience with Shady Lane. He replied that, while the park was currently on the market, he had been planning on pulling it off. It would take 30 days to “exercise the withdrawal of the purchase agreement.”
Adrian responded, “I'm going to make my offer contingent on this property not selling, because I can't go through that again.” After 30 days, Price officially pulled the purchase agreement, and Adrian moved into her new home.
However, Adrian wondered if Woodlawn Terrace could shift to cooperative ownership. Through her work with Shady Lane, Adrian had built connections with many people and organizations in the cooperative housing community, such as Paul Bradley, Tory Clark, and the North Country Coop Foundation. She asked NAME if he would be willing to talk to her contacts to help residents organize to purchase the park and become a cooperative. He agreed, and the 16 month negotiation process began.
The switch to residents owning the park occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. According to Adrian, most of the residents did not have the skills to use Zoom, so they had to meet outside (weather permitting) in their community gathering space, called Park Square, for meetings. On December 30, 2021, 75% of people voted to become a cooperative, finalizing the decision.
Adrian said, “When we purchased the park, we also had a big celebration. We get a great big sign from RocUSA that says ‘we own it.’” The invite list included city council members, Minnesota Housing Finance Agency executives.
Officially a cooperative, Woodlawn Terrace began a $65,000 process to evaluate the property. This required a thorough assessment of the trees, underground utilities, houses, infrastructure, sewer lines, and more. According to Adrian, they wanted to know exactly what they were getting into.
Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative was offered financing by Rock USA, but that would have required a substantial rent increase. The Minnesota Housing Finance Agency offers grants through their Manufactured Home Community Redevelopment Program. Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative was the first organization to receive this grant, Adrian informed me.
Now incorporated as a nonprofit, Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative was eligible for grant funding for infrastructure improvements.The biggest community concern was the water. The property had a private well, but the water was yellow, full of iron, and smelled. So, no one drank it. The water was tested quarterly. While Adrian herself became licensed to test the water with the Department of Health, an inspector would come out once a quarter to do water draws and testing.
In August, 2024, Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative had the resources to begin water installation. “It was a massive project,” said Adrian, costing $2 million in total.
First, Centerpoint Energy redid the water lines and gas meters. After disconnecting the well, Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative was temporarily connected to city water using above ground lines. Then, they continued digging to install permanent water lines underground. Additionally, the cooperative had to replace a sewer.
While they finished the final step (paving the roads) on November 13, 2024, Adrian told me, “There’s still work that needs to be done,” including spraying a dormant seed product on the ground to ensure grass growth in the future. Next spring, they also hope to redo the sewer lines and repave the roads.
“We’re in the process of refreshing the community, turning it around.” So far, Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative has demolished ten uninhabitable homes. They have also brought in nine new homes since becoming a cooperative. This winter, they are adding three double wide, three bedroom homes. Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative has plans to continue to add homes in their 10-15 lots available for placement.
“We need to generate more income on the property so that we can maintain our lot rents at a reasonable level, and we can do that by adding new residents.” Adrian added, “It’s all about affordable housing, because it’s in a crisis.”
I asked Adrian about the cooperative’s board of directors. “We have a board of directors, originally a group of five, they’ve added two more at large positions. They meet twice a month to make major decisions about what is happening and what we need to present to the community members.” The board makes most of the major decisions about the park. However, they prioritize quarterly community meetings, where they inform the community about where they are and where they want to go. Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative also has a book of bylaws, which they provide to new families.
The board also meets with new residents to explain the concept of a coop. Adrian explained, “People aren’t quite accustomed to the concept of a coop, but they do recognize and understand that we are different than a regular manufactured community that is owned by private owners…or private equity parks.” The purpose of the private owners and parks, according to Adrian, is to make as much money as possible. “They don’t do any infrastructure improvements, they don’t have any outside management, they’re all just private equity form that are interested in raising the rents, and they can do that twice a year without any justification.” This, of course, takes away options and autonomy from the residents. “It’s a serious concern.”
Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative encourages resident participation, which includes volunteers maintaining the community garden. Currently, the coop is home to 10 raised beds. They also started planting gardens on lots that would not be available to place a home. “We’re trying to use our space in the best way possible,” Adrian said.
They also consider sustainability and the environment when making decisions. For example, the water installation project forced them to remove 40 trees from the property. However, Adrian believes, “If you remove it, you have to replant.” Currently, the cooperative is applying for a grant to replant the removed trees.
At the moment, the idea has not been presented to the community. Adopting and caring for trees would require a big responsibility from the residents. Arborists would also be involved in monitoring the health of the trees. “People will have to commit to being tree parents to keep it going.” However, Adrian expressed excitement for the replanting process.
Another tree-related complication Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative has encountered is that the underground utilities (electrical lines, telephone lines, electrical wires, cable wires, etc.) are embedded in the roots of the trees. So, when the trees came down, there was damage to the existing utility structures.
Adrian said, “Our utilities here are considered private utilities. Which means, if there’s a power outage on our property, it’s our responsibility to restore.” This past August, a storm blew down three of their power poles. This blew out the lighting, in addition to the well, as it was run by electricity. All residents were out of power and water for a week, because they had to wait for Xcel. Adrian had to have private electricians come out to rewire. “Even though we pay Xcel, and we pay Centerpoint Energy, and we pay the city for the sewer, and now we pay the city for the water, but they don’t provide us any money for the install of any of those projects. It’s a little complicated…but it is what it is. Fortunately, we had a grant to provide us with the infrastructure improvements here.”
Before becoming a leader in manufactured home parks and cooperative housing, Adrian worked as a career counselor for people with disabilities. I asked her if that has impacted her current work.
“I started my career in 1988 as a job coach organization called Life Works, and we were pioneers in trying to secure employment for people with disabilities. There were no classes in college. It was boots on the ground, making it up as you went along. And so it involved going to CEOs and secretaries and corporate America in the Twin Cities area, pounding on doors and just doing a spiel and talking people into, let's give this a try, you know. And we sort of created a model of, you know, breaking down job descriptions, job duties, into smaller tasks that we could train people with disabilities to achieve success…And so I worked for 33 years in that capacity. Eventually I became a career placement counselor…It is all about relationships and connections.”
Most of the jobs centered around manual labor that did not require an advanced skillset, breaking down barriers for entry. According to Adrian, they were “very successful in finding opportunities for people and bringing people along.” The experience also strengthened her “ability to go up to just about anybody and just start talking,” and she describes the work as “really gratifying and very rewarding.” Her work with Woodlawn Terrace follows the same spirit of empowering people, advocacy, and building relationships.
As we closed our interview, I asked Adrian what she hoped the main takeaway would be for readers of the blog post. “One person can really make a difference. One person can really, really make a difference…Yeah, it's possible. And it can be overwhelming, it can be emotional, it can be thrilling…Pay attention people, the affordable housing issue is really in critical condition…That I guess is the best takeaway I can give you, yeah, so just pay attention and…one person, just if you really dedicate yourself, you can really make a difference.”
On my way out of Adrian’s home, I saw a crow. Adrian told me that they get lots of crows at Woodlawn Terrace, in addition to eagles, turkeys, bunnies, raccoons, and opposums– "It's like going North without the lake.” While the park is surrounded by nature, retail, public transportation, freeways, and corporate headquarters are also easily accessible.
Adrian said the following about joining Woodlawn Terrace Cooperative, “All of our homes are owner occupied, we run background checks, and financial checks, our Realtor sells the homes, we meet with the potential residents and explain the Cooperative concept. New people buying homes are required to join the Cooperative, we have a $100.00 one time joining fee, refundable if the residents move. We have bylaws, and community rules we provide new residents.”