The sale of one of Charlottesville’s last remaining trailer parks to a private entity could be derailed after the city and a group of nonprofit organizations banded together to put together a multimillion-dollar counteroffer to keep the park’s residents in place.
Facing the possibility of being displaced from their homes, the residents at the Carlton Mobile Home Park in the city’s Belmont neighborhood are deeply nervous about what comes next.
After an anonymous buyer submitted a $7 million offer to purchase the 6-acre, 66-trailer park, fears grew that if the deal went through, the park would be torn down and replaced with apartment buildings, forcing out people who have lived there for years.
Last week, in hopes of preventing that scenario, nonprofit homebuilder Habitat for Humanity partnered with the city and other local organizations to make a counteroffer on the residents’ behalf. How much that counteroffer amounts to has not been disclosed, but Habitat has promised it is competitive. The organizations also collected signatures from more than 40% of the park’s residents to make the offer, taking advantage of a Virginia law that requires any seller of a trailer park to consider a counteroffer if that offer represents at least 25% of existing tenants.
With two offers before them, the park’s owners will have to make a choice on which to accept.
It’s a decision that could upend the lives of residents who hope they can continue living in the park. Some pay a monthly rent of less than $400, a rare price in a city contending with an affordable housing crisis and where the average apartment rents for $1,618. The possibility of a sale — and being forced out of their homes — weighs heavy on the minds of Carlton residents.
“I’m very stressed. I’m not sleeping well. I’m not eating right. I’ve got an upset stomach all the time,” Rebecca Eubanks told The Daily Progress. “Like what am I going to do? I have no money. I have nothing.”
Regardless of who purchases the park, what will become of it next is unclear.
The buyer who originally placed the $7 million offer remains anonymous. But considering the assessed value of the land is $2.2 million, there is a possibility the buyer would need to build a development on the property to recoup their investment.
“There’s literally, I think, zero chance the plan wouldn’t be to redevelop it and move the residents,” Charlottesville City Council Member Michael Payne told The Daily Progress. “Particularly for $7 million. The only way that’s going to be profitable for that private developer will be to redevelop the site, which will inevitably lead to displacement of those residents.”
Dan Rosenweig, president of Charlottesville’s Habitat for Humanity chapter, declined to share details about the counteroffer. But he hopes the seller will accept it.
Habitat went through a similar process at two other trailer parks: Sunrise Park, which is next door to Carlton Mobile Home Park, and Southwood, just south of the city in Albemarle County. In both instances, Habitat bought the property and eventually built low-cost housing, transitioning trailer residents into new-build housing.
Rosenweig described it as a good deal for all parties involved: The seller still makes a profit off the sale and the residents aren’t displaced.
“In the past, it’s really been a win-win, and I’m hoping we can agree on the same win-win here,” Rosenweig told The Daily Progress.
But unlike Southwood and Sunrise, Habitat has had far less time, not only to put together a counteroffer for Carlton Mobile Home Park but also to meet with its residents. Rosenweig said Habitat had no idea the park was for sale until a resident informed his office a month ago.
With their prior two trailer park projects, Habitat had months, if not years, to earn the trust of residents. But last week, Habitat held a meeting with Carlton residents for the first time. Most were unfamiliar with the organization.
“Imagine one day you wake up and you get a notice that says in 60 days the land of your home will be sold,” Rosenweig said, referring to the letter residents received from the park’s ownership two months ago. “In an ideal situation we’d have a lot of time and breathing room to get to know people, to listen, to take them on tours of Southwood to show them what’s possible.”
“This was compressed into one meeting. It started very tense, and by the end, residents were interested in Habitat purchasing, provided two things,” Rosenweig continued.
The first condition was that the monthly rent increase would be capped at $15 annually. The other was that Habitat would keep Carlton as a trailer park for at least three years.
Habitat agreeing to that second condition was a turning point in the meeting.
Amber Gentry, Eubanks’ daughter, recalls residents being skeptical of Habitat’s intentions.
“I think everybody was really iffy at first. That’s why the meeting took three hours,” said Gentry.
Eventually one resident stood up and told Habitat that if the organization agreed not to redevelop the park for at least three years, they would have more buy-in from tenants.
“As soon as he said that, the entire room immediately shifted. They were all like, ‘Yeah, if you give us three years, then we’ll allow you to go and put in the offer,’” Gentry recalled.
Prior to that, residents had been resistant.
“They were like, ‘No, we don’t want you stepping in, because we don’t know what this is going to look like,’” Gentry said.
For residents like Nancy Sprouse who own their trailers, being forced to leave the park would create a deeply uncertain future. All of Sprouse’s closest relatives and friends live in Charlottesville, and she does not want to leave her church. But considering there are only two trailer parks in Charlottesville, she would likely have to move her trailer out of the city and possibly out of the state.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do if they sell it. If they take the [first offer] I don’t know where we would go. We own our trailer, and there are no parks here in Charlottesville. I’m scared,” Sprouse told The Daily Progress. “I’m glad I know they have to consider Habitat for Humanity’s offer. I just hope it’s enough to make the deal go through. It would mean a lot to us.”
There is no guarantee that the park’s current owner will accept the counteroffer. Representatives of the Bolton family, who own the park, did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Progress. If the family does accept, they will have three years to earn the trust of skeptical park residents.
“In the long term, our only interest is in the families who live there,” Rosenweig said. “We want to work side by side with them to figure out a long-term plan so there’s on-site, stable, quality housing for everybody that they can afford. We want this community to move forward without displacement.”
While projects like Sunrise and Southwood have been heralded as success stories, some Carlton residents would rather stay in their trailers instead of being placed into a new housing development.
“That doesn’t sound good,” said Sprouse about the possibility of being moved into an apartment. She and her husband have two sheds full of personal possessions that wouldn’t fit into a condo.
“It wouldn’t be good for us but it would be for other people,” Sprouse said.
Eubanks and Gentry are skeptical that everyone in the park would qualify for Habitat’s housing. Eubanks was a resident at Sunrise when Habitat purchased it. She said she was told at the time that Habitat would put her into a house of her own if she foreclosed on her trailer. But later, when learning of her credit score, Habitat said it would have to put her into a condominium. She began working as a maintenance coordinator in the building and eventually got married.
“When they found out that I was getting married, they took my job and took my apartment away from me as well. So I was left high and dry,” Eubanks said, adding that she and her daughters became homeless for roughly six months.
Considering that past experience, she and Gentry are especially skeptical about what will happen to them if Habitat purchases the property. While they and other residents are worried about an increase in crime around the park, Gentry said residents in the park look out for one another. They worry additional apartment complexes or single-family residences being built on the property could change the current neighborhood feel. And they feel that Habitat looks down upon trailers.
“People look down at you as trailer park trash,” Eubanks said.
Gentry recalled Habitat saying at the meeting that it was “unsuitable for people to be living in a trailer park.”
Neither is opposed to Habitat. But the organization will first have to earn their and their neighbors’ trust. Eubanks will need to feel confident, for instance, that she and others in the park will actually qualify for whatever housing Habitat might build on the park.
“If we decide to stay and we qualify, we can stay," Eubanks said. "But if we don’t qualify we’re basically —”
“— on our own again,” Gentry said, finishing her mother’s sentence.
“Not everybody has good credit. Not everybody is rich,” Eubanks said.
“There’s a reason we live in trailers, because we don’t come from rich backgrounds, we don’t have an inheritance,” said Gentry.
Sprouse was encouraged that Habitat agreed to the three-year condition. That will give her and her family time to figure out what they want to do next. Her preference would be that she can remain living in her trailer, but given the options before her, she hopes the seller will accept Habitat’s offer.
So too does Livable CVille, a local organization that advocates for more affordable housing in the city.
“It has been incredible seeing the community rally around the residents of Carlton Mobile Home Park,” the organization said in a statement to The Daily Progress. “The Bolton family has an opportunity to leave a legacy of affordable housing for generations to come. We are hopeful they will accept Habitat’s offer.”
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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