{"id":22134,"date":"2018-04-11T10:03:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T16:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=22134"},"modified":"2018-04-11T10:03:53","modified_gmt":"2018-04-11T16:03:53","slug":"online-fundraiser-pays-off-taxes-on-mobile-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/04\/online-fundraiser-pays-off-taxes-on-mobile-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"Online fundraiser pays off taxes on mobile homes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trailer\"<\/a>

Svein Newman<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s just more evidence of why I love living in Missoula,\u201d Svein Newman said Tuesday night. \u201cThe community steps up; they recognize a tangible need and their collective ability to meet it.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Thirty-one Missoula families can thank the generosity of neighbors they\u2019ll likely never meet for saving their homes from the auction block.<\/p>\n

A two-day online fundraiser collected $9,730 to pay delinquent taxes on mobile homes scheduled for auction Wednesday morning \u2013 not enough to save every home, but enough to keep 31 families in place.<\/p>\n

The Save Affordable Missoula Housing campaign on GoFundMe.com was the idea of Svein Newman, a longtime resident of Billings before moving to Missoula. On Sunday, after learning of the pending auction, he set up the account with a 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for fundraising.<\/p>\n

At first, Newman said, he hoped for $1,200 to save a handful of homes. Then the goal grew to $2,400, then $5,000 and eventually to $8,500.<\/p>\n

When Newman started, nearly 200 mobile homes were scheduled for auction by Missoula County at 9 a.m. Wednesday \u2013 unless overdue taxes were paid.<\/p>\n

\"Svein<\/a>

Svein Newman<\/p><\/div>\n

Donating mostly $25 or $50 at a time, nearly 200 Missoula residents answered his call to action. In the meantime, some of the homeowners were able to borrow or raise the needed funds themselves, whittling the auction list to under 100 residences.<\/p>\n

The $9,730 raised by the county\u2019s deadline at the close of business Tuesday paid the taxes on 31 mobile homes.<\/p>\n

Missoula County treasurer Tyler Gernant supported the effort, and did the research needed to be certain the donations reached the most vulnerable families.<\/p>\n

Any remaining funds after the delinquent accounts are settled will go to North Missoula Community Development Corp. to help residents of Skyview Trailer Park relocate.<\/p>\n

Those families are newly in danger of homelessness after the trailer park closed. Many live in mobile homes that are too old to move \u2013 or that won\u2019t be accepted at other parks in the city because they don\u2019t meet modern-day codes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just more evidence of why I love living in Missoula,\u201d Newman said Tuesday night. \u201cThe community steps up. They recognize a tangible need and their collective ability to meet it.\u201d<\/p>\n

State law requires counties to auction mobile homes if the owners fall behind on their taxes. Missoula County conducts one such auction each year, after making sure the affected homeowners are notified and given a chance to come up with the money.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cNobody should have to lose a home that they already own,\u201d Newman said. \u201cA lot of these homes were being lost for very low debts \u2014 under $200. That was shocking to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

One mobile home owner owed just $191.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a community, we care a lot about affordable housing,\u201d Newman said, \u201cand that starts with helping people stay in properties where they already live. When I saw that 200 homes were about to be lost, the need and opportunity felt real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newman learned that reality firsthand Tuesday morning when a single mother of two contacted him to ask if the GoFundMe effort could help with her tax bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer bill was less than $200,\u201d Newman said, \u201cbut she couldn\u2019t quite get there. She has a job, but can\u2019t pay all the bills. She was terrified for her kids and for her future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was wonderful to say, \u2018We\u2019ve got you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherry Devlin is a longtime Missoula journalist who writes\u00a0occasional stories for\u00a0Missoula Current<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0where this story originally appeared.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirty-one Missoula families can thank the generosity of neighbors they\u2019ll likely never meet for saving their homes from the auction block. A two-day online fundraiser collected $9,730 to pay delinquent taxes on mobile homes scheduled for auction Wednesday morning \u2013 not enough to save every home, but enough to keep 31 families in place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":22135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[365,6898],"class_list":["post-22134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-missoula","tag-svein-newman","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22134"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22138,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22134\/revisions\/22138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}