Meet Deb, The Volunteer Preventing Mobile Home Owners From Being Forced Out Of Their Homes

in Volunteer Spotlight

On a chilly February day, volunteer Deb van den Honert can be found balancing arms full of flyers as she knocks on the doors of Boulder County’s mobile home owners. The reason? To make sure unpaid taxes don’t cause a family to lose their home. Manufactured home communities are one of the few remaining stocks of affordable housing in Boulder County. Several years ago, Deb was heartbroken to learn that people in her community were being forced out of their homes over unpaid property taxes. Mobile homeowners who do not pay their taxes on time can have their tax liens sold out from under them. Often the missed payments are minimal, sometimes as low as $150. “The amount that they owed was so small, and to lose their home for that reason … was frustrating,” said Deb. Wanting to make a difference, Deb reached out to EFAA and made a plan. Deb would visit mobile home owners with delinquent payments, and EFAA, along with Sister Carmen and OUR Center, would help qualifying households pay off their balance. The results? To date, EFAA has helped 11 households pay over $4,000 in taxes and stay in their homes. Thanks to Deb’s visits, hundreds more have learned about EFAA’s services. “If I can save one person from being evicted, that’s my purpose,” said Deb.

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