Low-Income Info. Can you make it? Is it safe? Answered here.

[feanix]

Thank you for the compliment and, yes, I am college educated with a degree. My income situation is not likely to change until my husband is done with college (another reason we chose to move here). I am physically unable to work, due to an unexpected illness (virus) I caught while working. Physically, I can barely walk on some days, and mentally I struggle through simple posts even such as this (which took an hour, so, you can see quite the struggle). Things that were once effortless are now frustrating. I hope to return to work one day, and we are working towards that goal, but I am realistically hopeful.

UltrazGSD, it's refreshing to see someone else post similar thoughts when applying for help! We rarely have the opportunity to qualify for help, but, when we do, I feel as though they believe me incapable of rationale thought. Not that I don't understand where the notion comes from. Several times I've thought to myself as I look around the pool of applicants to whatever service I'm applying for, that it is a darn shame that we citizens are paying for a wasted high school education on some people who will go through life never dreaming bigger than the inside of a Welfare office. It reflects in their life choices and is affirmed the second they speak. What does that say about them? Their parents? Their schools? Their neighborhoods? ...very sad. But, yeah, I agree that to test out of mandatory classes if you've already taken them would be great as it appears a waste of your time and theirs to have you retake them.

Sort of back on topic. In my initial post I mentioned a mobile home community that I had heard about but couldn't confirm close to Old Town. Well! I unintentionally found it! (We were borrowing my husband's friend's truck who happens to live there.) It is off of North College and Terry Lake and is called Poudre Mobile Home Park (or something very close). Let me just say, "Wow. And no!" I would *not* move there. I'm sure, back when I first moved that I breezed through this community one night and didn't think it was that bad. But now having lived in FC for a period of time and within a mobile home park I better know what to look for and location-wise how convenient it is to FC.

It is largely Hispanic (which I like as my husband and daughter are Hispanic), so that is not the issue I take with the community. My issue is that these homes are stacked one on top of the other and run down looking and I can't imagine if a fire were to break out there that it wouldn't take down multiple homes. It's not like other locations where if you get on your bike and leave the community you'll be in suburbia. No, here the rundown looking community you'll be living in will bring you directly onto a road of dated looking low-budget motels. What a wonderful environment to raise your kids in, right? If you aren't reaching for your hand sanitizer yet...

After you're done worrying how many of these motels contain drugs/offenders or the like, you realize that you now live in what appears to be a semi-business district on the outskirts of town, not a neighborhood. Within the community you've got 3-4 cars lined up at many of the homes so it makes the community feel even more crowded. Many of the homes appear to be early model homes (70-80's), maybe earlier, which is fine, except many of those homes appear to need repairs, some major. You may find yourself, as I did, trying to understand the rationale of owning a new black truck with rims (and huge rims at that) while disregarding a simple (and cheap purchase) of mobile home skirting so that you don't have to use salvaged plywood as skirting? Or that it doesn't occur to them that it is an eyesore for their neighbor, whose only view is your home or that it could be like bait for some wood-loving bugs as they didn't even bother to treat the plywood. What fun there will be when the wood-loving bugs invade your cheaply made (and maintained) home! Maybe they'll even visit your unlucky neighbor. The proximity of the housing would suggest so. And my brain still running on, ponders if the outside of the homes are any indication to the insides of the home, because roaches there would spread like an epidemic. Broken windows, unsafe looking structures, shoddy repair work, and possibly monthly exterminator fees is what it appears you'd have to look forward to by living there.

So, when a woman from a mobile home community looks down on another mobile home community, TAKE NOTICE. Living in a relatively well-maintained community has it issues so my brain starts questioning how involved management can be in serious safety issues if it doesn't appear they address the smaller and easier issues of safe home maintenance? To which my brain quickly quips, "They aren't." Now, I don't live there, so obviously I don't really know, but what I saw did not impress me enough to ever want to know even if I was moving.

I may make a thread and take pictures of the mobile home/ low-income housing communities in the area. I was inspired to do so after finding a small mobile home community right on the outskirts of Old Town! I don't know if it's privately owned but it looks run down as well (which shocks me given it's location). The location blew me away. It's right down on LaPorte and when I Googled it I found a listing for:

North Star Mobile Home Community
1616 Laporte Avenue, Fort Collins, CO 80521

But the listing classifies it as a "campground", so no clue if that is accurate and/or if it is a long-term or short-term community.

Anyway, I may put my recumbent bike to use here before it gets too cold and take some pictures on my better days.

['M']

Feanix...have you ever tried going to the Wal-Mart between Fort Collins and Loveland, on Hwy 287/College? It's possible that it could be a quicker commute.

[Chzanne]

Feanix,
Thank you for the wonderfully, encouraging post! A little background about myself, I was raised upper middle class in the suburbs of Minneapolis. I travelled the world and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota. After college it was easy to pick up a 30-40k job in the Twin Cities while sitting in a cube. I jumped around from cube to cube for a long time, and lived VERY comfortably. I then followed my heart down the Mississippi river to a very low populated, VERY LOW INCOME, very high crime area in Mississippi. I have been here for three years and am very happily married and live a very comfortable life (cost of living is as high as suburbs of Minneapolis, but half the annual income). However, my husband and I are looking to move. It is very hard to imagine starting a family where we live in Mississippi. We live with metal bars on our doors and windows, it is well known to try and do any grocery shopping during day light hours (examples that I have seen: groups of kids will go into Walmart past dark and start clothing racks on fire...it is pretty sad), and tuition for k-12 private school cost more a year than Mississippi State University. Very sad, because I love my family and friends here! Also, I very much dislike my boss, and jobs are very hard to come by here...even when you know people.

We want to move towards the Mountains! We LOVE the outdoors! I miss seasons changing. Also, we are looking to go back to school (I want to get my masters, and my husband wants to finish his bachelors). Initially, Fort Collins appeared perfect! Then I started the job search, and have become very discouraged. However, reading your post has given me some hope! I am not above living in a Doublewide!! Plus we have a very loving German Shepherd, and it would break my heart to confine him to an apartment.

Maybe you can help me with some more advice. When would be the best time of year to move? I was thinking that Oct/Nov might be the best time. Only because students have already moved in and looked for jobs. And it is not close enough to graduation for students to be looking for full time jobs.

If I can't find a 9-5 job, do you have any idea what the service industry is like? I have 10 years in the food service world. So I have confidence I am qualified for a job. However, another post said that restaurants steady get 10-20 qualified applicants a week. So that is a little discouraging.

My husband has an associates degree. He is very hard working and and drive anything on wheels (has a CDL, fork lifts, Dump trucks, tractors, combines, you name it, he can drive it). So I am hoping a warehouse type job. However, he might have to start hauling to get us by. Any advice for him?

Thank you for restoring some hope for FC! I was thinking I might need to start looking else where (Billing, Boise, Spokane, etc).

[Count David]

Originally Posted by Chzanne

Thank you for restoring some hope for FC! I was thinking I might need to start looking else where (Billing, Boise, Spokane, etc).

Spokane is like how you described Mississippi in regards to income potential, and like Fort Collins when it comes to finding a job.

[Chzanne]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

Spokane is like how you described Mississippi in regards to income potential, and like Fort Collins when it comes to finding a job.

Thanks for the heads up on spokane...I am confident we will find the right place for us! All advice is very appreciative!

[bikergirl60]

Hi Feanix,
since you seem to know the area, can you give me some background on the Terry Lake Mobile Home Park on north 287? That seemed a bit run-down also...
thanks!

[rachaelb]

Hey there

I lived in an income subsidized place for 2 years and have had some experience in this area. PM me and I'll give you my insights.