Homestead Village of Raleigh: Part I

Over the next several days, Manufactured Housing Reader will present a series of sketches on individual Homestead Village Mobile Home Park residents. If the Raleigh City Council approves a re-zoning petition for the Homestead property, in a vote scheduled Aug. 5^th, the park owner plans to move forward with a sale to individuals seeking to expel residents and re-develop the land to commercial property. Many of these residents have no recourse at all.

Howard and Alandon

by Scott Young

Howard and his wife entered the Homestead Village Mobile Home Park of Raleigh two months ago, relocating from Cleveland, Ohio. Howard hoped to shift expensive tools from Cleveland to Raleigh and start a construction company; he also wanted a stable environment to raise his 3-year old son, Alandon. The Homestead park’s cheery ambience and low cost promised a safe place for a young family’s first home in Raleigh. Convinced, Howard looked to buy a unit.

No one mentioned troubles at Homestead Village. According to Howard, the park’s owner, quietly negotiating with re-developers, never admitted the park could close in weeks or months, expelling residents; never mentioned he hoped to close it with a high-price sale for re-development.

If not for neighborly warnings, Howard would have bought the unit. As it stands, already in Raleigh, he is forced to rent. For now his work and his livelihood are on hold; like all residents at Homestead, his long-term plans have been paralyzed by uncertainty.

Just now, Alandon darts about the remarkably paved roads of Homestead Village and up a smiling neighbor’s porch, leaping the flowers, to settle for seconds in a terrace bench before starting off again. Meanwhile, his parents don’t know what to do. Intolerable, impossible risk precludes any action – they have not enough money to gamble on homes. And yet somewhere, in secret, the well-paid attorneys make wagers themselves. They are gambling the futures of hundreds of residents.

~ by Scott Y. on July 2, 2008.