After Charlottesville Tomorrow published a report in late June about the pending sale of Carlton Mobile Home Park, local groups and residents have mobilized to try to buy the park — and prevent its residents from possibly being displaced.
Last month, Carlton Mobile Home Park residents received a letter from the current owners saying that they’d received a $7 million offer on the park and were poised to accept it. And, as required by state law, the letter informed residents that they had 60 days to put in an offer of their own.
Charlottesville Tomorrow published a story about the potential sale, and how it could affect residents, on June 28. At the time, Habitat for Humanity had heard about the potential sale and was looking into it, a spokesperson for the organization told Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Now, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville is scrambling to put together an offer on the park on behalf of residents before that 60 days is up on August 6.
“Nothing is certain at this point,” said Dan Rosensweig, Habitat Charlottesville’s president and CEO. “But we feel like we have a moral and ethical obligation, when people — especially vulnerable people — who are in harm’s way, to at least look at it.”
Mobile and manufactured home parks are the largest remaining source of unsubsidized low-cost housing in the United States, according to the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development. Across the country, these parks are disappearing. Including Carlton, there are just two remaining in the city, and four in Albemarle County.
Usually when a mobile home park is sold, it faces one of two fates, said Laura Dobbs and Brenda Castañeda, attorneys with Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, a nonprofit that enforces and advocates for fair housing laws. Either the new owner raises the lot rent above what residents can afford; or it clears the park for a new development. In both cases, residents are almost always displaced.
Rosensweig wouldn’t say where Habitat is looking for the funding, just that it’s “trying as hard as we can” to put an offer together.
In order for Habitat to put in an offer, it must have the support of at least 25% of the households, the Virginia Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act states.
Over the weekend, members of the Charlottesville Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, as well as Legal Aid Justice Center staff, canvassed Carlton with a petition. By signing the petition, residents voiced their support for Habitat for Humanity putting in an offer on the park on their behalf.
The canvassers went out three different times — Friday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, and Sunday evening — knocking on every trailer door.
Most of the people who spoke with the canvassers signed the petition.
“I ain’t got nowhere else to go,” said Clarence Peyton as he signed. Peyton moved to Charlottesville as a child and has lived here for more than 80 years, more than 20 of them in his trailer at Carlton.
Dennis Pedroza signed because he’s worried about where his neighbors will go if they have to leave the park.
“For me, it’s no problem moving. But for my neighbors? Where will they go?” he said in a mix of English and Spanish.
Pedroza, who lives at the park with his wife and their young children, has put a lot of work into his trailer. He’s particularly proud of the shaded deck he built. His next door neighbor liked it so much that Pedroza built one for him, too.
“It’s for my neighbor,” he said of his signature. “For me, it’s no problem, moving.”
One resident didn’t want to sign because Habitat was involved, but he didn’t want to elaborate.
Another resident was curious about it, but wanted to hear more about Habitat’s intentions before signing. He’s planning on attending a community meeting Habitat is hosting on July 24.
Yet another resident, who didn’t want to sign during Friday’s canvassing, ended up signing on Sunday after having more time to think about it.
Still, the petition already has the number of signatures required. There are 66 lots and therefore 66 trailer homes in the park, and 29 of those households have signed the petition — that’s 44%, well above the 25% the law requires.
Though enough households had already signed the petition by Monday afternoon, organizers are probably going to continue canvassing, said Emily Dreyfus, a community organizer with Legal Aid Justice Center. They’re hoping to have the chance to speak with every household at Carlton.
The Democratic Socialists of America, which has done a lot of eviction prevention work in the past few years, made the park the topic of its Wednesday, July 10 chapter meeting. The group has mounted an email campaign, urging its members and people throughout the community to ask City Council to do something to ensure that residents are not displaced. In addition to the email campaign, members of the organization are planning to show up to this Monday’s City Council meeting to speak.
City Council will discuss the park in its closed session Monday afternoon, said Councilor Michael Payne. Payne went on the Friday afternoon canvassing trip, and said that the dozen or so folks he spoke with were all in support of Habitat putting in an offer.
“There’s a lot of moving parts,” Payne said in a phone call with Charlottesville Tomorrow. “But if an offer is to be made, it’s going to need to be competitive and fair. And that is going to mean there’s going to be some sort of partnership with the city needed. That’s clear.”
Payne isn’t sure what exactly that partnership would look like, but he expects Council to look at supporting the project financially.
Though, finding enough money outside of a budget cycle could be challenging, he said.
Even if Habitat and potential partners come up with $7 million to match the current offer, it might not be enough. Oftentimes these off-market purchase agreements have a penalty clause, which can require the seller to pay the prospective buyer a pre-arranged amount of money if the seller backs out of the sale. It’s meant to prevent the seller from going with another offer, Laura Dobbs, director of policy for Housing Opportunities Made Equal Virginia, previously told Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Habitat’s Rosensweig does not know if there is a penalty clause in the agreement between the park’s seller and prospective buyer. That contract is not public, and the owners are not obligated to reveal that information, said Rosensweig.
So, an offer by Habitat would likely need to be more than $7 million. It won’t be easy to get that much money together on such a tight timeline, but it’s worth trying, said Rosensweig.
“With a $7 million price tag, we don’t see any way that it stays a mobile home park.”
Dan Rosensweig, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville’s president and CEO
“With a $7 million price tag, we don’t see any way that it stays a mobile home park” if it is sold to the prospective buyer, Rosensweig said.
Habitat has done this sort of thing before.
In 2007, the organization purchased the 100-acre Southwood Mobile Home Park in Albemarle County, just south of the city, so that its 1,500 residents wouldn’t be displaced.
Habitat has stated its intentions of redeveloping the park with at least 500 units of affordable housing, with as little resident displacement as possible, and with resident input on the development. Residents decided to remain in their trailers as more traditional site-built housing is constructed. The redevelopment is happening in waves, so, as the housing is finished, people are able to move out of their trailers and into their new homes. That project broke ground in September 2020.
In the long term, Habitat’s goal is to turn over ownership of Southwood to the residents themselves, according to Habitat’s website for the project.
Habitat also redeveloped the 16-unit Sunrise Trailer Court, a mobile home park off of Carlton Road right next to Carlton Mobile Home Park, into a mixed income neighborhood of site-built houses for about 60 families. Families started moving in July 2012.
But even with the apparent groundswell of support, the future of Carlton Mobile Home Park remains uncertain.
While the sellers are required by law to consider an offer on behalf of the residents, like the one Habitat is working on, the law does not require them to accept it.
“It might not work out — it very well might not work out,” said Rosensweig. “We’re trying to manage expectations and not get people’s hopes up.”
The canvassers have tried to be as open about this as possible, too. “We don’t know what will happen, but we want to try to prevent displacement and save affordable housing,” the canvassing flier reads.
Clarence Peyton, one of the longtime park residents who spoke with canvassers on Sunday, said he’s glad people are at least trying. “God blesses you with one thing, and takes away another. That’s the way it is,” he said.
Peyton hopes his home of more than 20 years won’t be one of the things taken away. He signed the petition immediately.
Dreyfus, the LAJC community organizer who spoke with Peyton, asked if he had any questions about the sale. Peyton shook his head, no. He had no questions about the sale. But he knows what he wants them to do about it:
“Stop it.”
