The changing demographics of mobile homes, including a growing Latinx population, shine a light on larger changes in the U.S. When Marco Garcia began looking for a place for his family to live in the Denver area in 2011, he found himself searching for what many renters want: homeownership and a piece of the American Dream.
He found it at Denver Meadows, a mobile home park in Aurora, Colorado. Lacking enough money to buy a traditional home, Garcia, a roofer, found the park to be a great fit for his wife and two kids. A ten-acre park with roughly 400 residents split between 83 homes, it?s a place for young families: More than half of the residents are kids, and netting connects many of the trailers, indicative of multigenerational households. ?It?s quiet, and a good community to live in,? he says. Lot rent is $560 a month. Garcia loved being close to job sites (the community is next to Interstate 225). And, even more importantly, he felt a sense of community at a park that was majority Latinx.
Like many Latinx immigrants in the United States, Garcia has worked for the opportunity to own his own home. And, increasingly, as a lack of affordable housing impacts cities across the country, mobile and manufactured homes have become a way to achieve this goal.

Allison Shelley/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
The sun sets behind the Waples Mobile Home Park in Fairfax, Virginia, February 4, 2016. About 15 residents in the mobile home community who...