Wake Forest residents losing fight for mobile home park, but solutions are possible
Update: Middleburg Communities vice president Jason Pfister clarified at Tuesday’s joint review in Wake Forest that the developer is asking the town to reimburse half of a $250,000 relocation payment for mobile home park residents.
More than 100 Wake Forest residents are giving up the fight to keep their mobile home park intact and instead are asking the town of Wake Forest to help them pay to move their homes.
Jason Pfister, vice present of land entitlements for Middleburg Communities, said Saturday that the residents now have other options, including vacant lots in other mobile home parks outside the Triangle.
Middleburg has the 36-acre Wellington Mobile Home Park under contract and plans to build up to 260 cottage-style, for-rent homes. The developer has pledged $250,000 — more than $5,000 per household — to help residents relocate if the rezoning is approved.
Mobile home residents and their advocates rallied Tuesday evening at Wake Forest Town Hall to urge the town to provide additional relocation assistance. The Wake Forest Board of Commissioners and the town planning board held a joint public hearing afterward.
Pfister clarified at the joint review that Middleburg is willing to provide the $250,000 in relocation money up front but wants the town to reimburse $125,000 by reducing a required parks and recreation fee.
Several commissioners and residents expressed shock, saying that condition was news to them. Commissioner Bridget Wall-Lennon suggested the developer instead offer $375,000 for relocation costs, in return for the town providing a $125,000 recreation fee credit.
The developer will consider the suggestion and respond to the town in the next few days, Pfister said.
The Planning Board could vote on the rezoning next week. The commissioners are not expected to vote until at least Sept. 21.
Pfister noted Tuesday that roughly 20 of the 47 families who lived at Wellington Park already have moved, many since a July 17 news conference was held there to bring attention to the pending sales.
In late July, the residents got notices from park owner George Mackie Jr. telling them that he was selling the park. Most own their mobile homes and rent the land underneath from Mackie, who is a former Wake Forest mayor. The families include lower-income and retired residents, who say they cannot afford other housing in Wake County.
Many families wanted to fight the rezoning and form a resident-owned cooperative to buy the land at market rate in partnership with the non-profit ROC-USA and its affiliate Carolina Common Enterprise. They gave up on those plans after receiving the closing notice.
Mackie told The Wake Weekly newspaper recently that the park will close Jan. 15 — with or without the rezoning. He has not responded to The News & Observer’s requests for an interview.
“That whole mobile park is being shut down, so there’s nothing to discuss,” Mackie told The Wake Weekly. “They (don’t have) a reason to even have hope for being there after the proper procedures are being done. They’re getting the first letters now, and they will continue.”
Relocation money, available lots
Pfister has been talking with residents and organizers from two other nonprofits, ONE Wake and the N.C. Congress of Latino Organizations, for several months about the situation. He also has talked with a handful of mobile home brokers, park owners and moving companies.
The developer’s money will help, the residents said, but it’s not enough. The cost to move a mobile home can range from several thousand dollars to more than $20,000, depending on the home’s condition, the distance to the new site, required permits and utility hookups. Pfister said the moving companies with which he spoke quoted a cost of $5,000 to $7,000 just to move a mobile home up to 50 miles.
Many of the families have struggled to find another community, because the Triangle has few mobile home lots available. Those who think they can land on their feet are contemplating how to leave behind friends, neighbors, schools and jobs.
Others, especially those who are retired and living on a fixed income, fear they will be homeless when the park closes.
The conversations with residents and advocates have been helpful in resolving some of the language issues and miscommunication about what’s happening to the park and with Middleburg’s project, Pfister said.
His company is not a party to the landlord-tenant issues with Mackie, Pfister emphasized, but they are trying to “help see what we can do to alleviate the pressures of relocation and provide services and really to give them information.”
He noted that two mobile home park owners with available lots reached out recently with options for the residents.
Archimedes Group, which owns the Creekside Mobile Home Park in Halifax County, about 60 miles northeast of Wellington Park, has 45 lots available, according to its website. Pfister said the company has offered to pay up to $5,000 toward relocation costs for each home and lower the monthly rent to $200. The rent would gradually increase to $300 a month over the next five years, he said.
Another company with mobile home parks in Rocky Mount and Burlington — roughly 50 to 60 miles, respectively, east and west of Wake Forest — also is offering to help with relocation, Pfister said. He did not have details about that offer.
Middleburg also looked at the possibility of buying land or working with Wake County housing officials to find public land on which to create a new mobile home park, he said. That plan, which also would take a long time to implement, didn’t get anywhere, he said.
“I tried to do what I could,” Pfister said, adding that he thinks the parks with openings made attractive offers. “I know it’s not ideal. It’s not going to be a solution for everyone, but hopefully some of the residents will think long and hard about it.”
This story was originally published September 5, 2021 at 8:18 AM.
