George Lawson runs Cornerstone Dairy in Irasburg. About four years ago he wanted to buy a cornfield in nearby Coventry to help feed his herd of 1,600 cows, but the owners wouldn’t sell Lawson the field alone.
It was a package deal: the cornfield and the adjacent mobile home park were being sold as one, so Lawson bought them both. Today Lawson owns and operates Nadeau Park, a mobile home community participating in Vermont’s new Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program.
“We’ve got thirteen (homes), including this one,” Lawson says standing in the kitchen of a new two-bedroom, one-bath home made possible by the Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program.
George Lawson
About 6% of Vermont’s housing stock consists of mobile homes. Those 21,000 homes are an important part of the state’s housing mix. That’s why the Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program is an integral part of the Scott Administration’s efforts to increase Vermont’s housing stock by creating more affordable options for homebuyers that simultaneously free up where those people are living now to other Vermonters searching for a place to live.
Vermont’s housing crisis is well documented. Vermont has a dearth of homes to buy and rent across all price points. The compounding effect of decades of underbuilding and old homes falling into disrepair are highlighted in Vermont’s latest five-year Housing Needs Assessment. It finds Vermont needs to build between 24,000 and 36,000 homes by 2029. That’s 4,800 to 7,200 units per year. Right now, about 2,300 building permits are issued a year, not even half the target set in the Housing Needs Assessment. Losing homes to flooding in the last 15 months has exacerbated the problem.
Workers pouring a new concrete pad.
The Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program is a cross-agency effort led by Stacy Andre and Mike Booth. The team identifies vacant mobile home lots statewide and prepares them for a home by investing thousands of dollars in a new concrete pad the home will sit on. Typically, that pricey investment is the responsibility of the homeowner.
Once the site work is done, the Vermont State Housing Authority (VSHA) becomes involved. VSHA uses state grant money to purchase energy-rated homes. (There are three floor plans available: two-bedroom, one bath; two-bedroom, two-bath; and three-bedroom, two-bath.) VSHA also identifies income-eligible buyers and helps them secure financing. The homes are sold at-cost, so buyers aren’t paying any markup. The Emergency Board (Governor Scott and four lawmakers) unanimously signed off on the program in early August when it allocated $7,000,000 to the effort.
Home in Nadeau Park shortly after it was placed on a new pad.
“This just makes so much sense to me. We have available vacant lots in the state that can be filled with minimal effort,” says James Unsworth who plans to use the program to add three homes to the River Bend Mobile Home Community in St. Johnsbury he owns. “We can put people in these (houses) in a matter of months as opposed to building homes that can take years due to permitting and zoning.”
The program also reduces the stress and burden on the prospective homeowner and has the added benefit of keeping Vermonters in their communities. Before the Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program, Unsworth points out it was on the homebuyer to put all the pieces together on their own: locate a lot, find an available home, and come up with the financing to buy it.
Vermont has 238 mobile home parks. To date, the Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program has identified 57 lots at parks in Bennington, Brattleboro, Westminster, Springfield, Braintree, Milton, Morristown, Coventry, and St. Johnsbury. The team is canvassing the rest of the state’s parks to identify more. The goal is to have 250 homes in place by July 1, 2026. The Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program hopes to have the first 30 ready for occupancy by the end of 2024.
Left: New mobile home in Nadeau Park. Right: Vacant lot that will accommodate another Rapid Response home.
Back in Orleans County, when he’s not tending to the cows or Nadeau Park, George Lawson serves as Pastor at New Hope Bible Church in Irasburg. He says housing insecurity is a recurring theme in this part of the Northeast Kingdom.
“I deal with, as a pastor, a lot of people who are struggling - struggling with where to live, how to afford it,” says Lawson.
Lawson says he has helped many in his community access housing but insists more needs to be done to solve this massive problem. So, when fellow Irasburg community member Mike Booth called Lawson last spring to ask if he’d like to participate in the Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program, it was an easy sell.
“I told him, ‘If you’re the one doing it’. I trust Mike,” says Lawson.
Lawson standing in kitchen of new mobile home.
Lawson is extremely happy with the work on the site and is eagerly awaiting a buyer to move in. He’s also encouraging other park owners to participate in the Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program to ease the state’s housing crunch and help Vermonters who are working to achieve their dream of homeownership.
“There are some people who truly need legitimate help, and we’re called to help each other.”
The Rapid Response Mobile Home Infill Program will begin accepting applications on November 1.