“The residents of the park are very worried because they will have to leave the place they call home, can afford and love,” Katia Vara-Roebuck, an organizer and translator with ONE Wake said this week about the families still living in the former Wellington Mobile Home Park, recently renamed Quail Crossing.
They are worried because the park owner, former mayor George Mackie Jr., has not budged in his intent to follow through on his contract with Middleburg Communities, which intends to build 260 single-family rental units which would include two- and three-bedroom homes and one-bedroom duplexes once the current residents are evicted. They have all been served 180-day eviction notices which end in January.
There is no information about the new rental rates yet, but a Middleburg property in Charlotte rents one-bedroom apartments at $1,315 per month and three-bedrooms at $2,132.
The Wellington residents pay $300 a month to rent the lots on which they have placed mobile homes of various ages, conditions and sizes.
The residents can look forward to Sept. 7 when the Wake Forest Planning and Town Boards will hold a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. in the Wake Forest Town Hall on the request to rezone the 76 acres to mixed-use residential. The planning board can consider the request at their meeting the following week at 6 p.m. Sept. 14, and the town commissioners will have the final vote on Sept. 21.
However, Mackie did not mention the rezoning in his eviction letter. He said he plans to end all leases and close the park. If the families do not leave and move their homes by January, he wrote, “we will immediately begin eviction proceedings against you.”
Despite pleas from friends, Mackie has refused to even listen to an offer by ROC-USA (Resident-Owned Communities), which has offered the same amount of money as Middleburg will pay under the contract. The sale to ROC-USA would allow the park residents to stay and to form a cooperative which would own and operate the park.
Meanwhile, “Residents are now in communication with the developer regarding possible relocation compensation,” Roebuck said, because they want to have something when (or if) they are forced to move.
“However, Roebuck said, “the amount offered by developer is not enough to cover the most basic relocation expenses. Everyone is looking into other potential sources – public and private – to help the families.
“Partially solving this problem will require a collaboration among all parties involved including the developer, Triangle Family Services, the Town Commissioners, the County Commissioners and One Wake.”
Reportedly, Middleburg has offered as much as $5,000 per family to help with their relocation. Whether that still stands is now known.
The relocation problems are many and expensive. A large percentage of the mobile homes are too old to be relocated; if they are newer and can be relocated, the cost of moving a trailer can be as high as $25,000 plus whatever utility connections or new utilities like a well and septic tank would be required; and finally, there is literally no place for them to go if they can be moved. All local mobile home parks are full and not accepting new residents; if they do find land or a park it will be so far away that they will lose their work and school connections.
But one resident, Ronnie Jackson, who also helped form a resident committee and has been a spokesman, is looking for land where he could relocate the 30-some families who would be homeless after eviction.
An intractable irate landowner, frightened tenants, Wake Forest community members trying to find a solution which helps all parties, a rezoning which could mean eviction before the landowner can carry through with it: It is a situation which tears at the heartstrings.
(The Gazette, which was not published from June 16 through Aug. 4, did have an article about the mobile home park in the Aug. 4 issue.)
#
9 Responses
Before Ellen Samuelson makes comments like, “(Mackie) had this ( mobile home park) on the market for years and these “holdouts” (talk about a loaded word) did nothing for years and now expect a bailout”, she needs to do A LOT OF HOMEWORK. Mackie was still accepting new renters (and their money) only a few months ago and many of these people have lived here over 20 years. These residents of Wake Forest are not looking for handouts, they are looking for someplace that they can afford on the salaries or pensions they earn. Many of these people have been looking for months and what is being advertised as affordable is being bought up by corporations with cash. Before prejudging why don’t you come out and meet them and hear their stories?
I’m wondering if Mackie has been offered a partial ownership stake in the new buildings, which is a good reason to prefer that outcome.
I don’t know, I’m just presenting the idea. I have been involved in real estate deals where the owner of the property has been offered a 2-5% stake in the holding company and gets a share of profits.
We may never know. I have learned that there is always more to the story and those that think they know all of the details, really don’t.
This is a sad commentary on humanity. A true success story for affordable housing is being destroyed to be replaced with more expensive housing that none of these current residents can afford. There is something missing in this story. It makes absolutely no sense that the property owner would not take the same amount of money from ROC as he would get from the developer unless he is bound by a contract that can only be voided by the zoning decision not going in favor of the multifamily development. I wish developers would quit hiding behind benevolent sounding words when all they really want is profit.
The owner has had this place on the market for years. The renters had all that time to figure out an exit. They knew this day would come, but these holdouts did nothing for years, and now they want to someone else to bail them out. Time to move folks. Land is cheap in Vance County.
If he can make the same money either way, why force them out? You obviously don’t want affordable housing in our community. I’m privileged like you, but I don’t look down on others to make myself feel superior. Kicking people out of their homes has nothing to do with the money he’ll make regardless.
News flash !!! Mackie has never once said anything to any of us residents in the 18 years I’ve been here about selling the land. EVER !! Matter of fact still to this day as I write this he still hasn’t come to us or called us and told us he’s selling. We found out from Middleburg when they sent out flyers telling everyone in the area what they intended to do. As far as a (bailout) I can only speak for myself I don’t need a bailout but if you’re gonna come in and up and make me have to relocate after 18yrs with no notice hell Yeah you gonna have to pay me it’s only fair. To be honest it should be George Mackie paying us but he pawned that off on Middleburg also. As far as moving to Vance county yeah I’m good on that I ain’t trying to drive a hr to a hour and a half one way to work everyday.
Carol, Amazing writing and a succinct and precise description of what has been happening in Wake Forest to a small group of Wake Forest citizens that fix hair, serve food, clean houses, drive taxis as well as many veterans quietly living out their lives. It is a reminder that many people in Wake Forest do not see $250,000 homes nor $1300 rent apartments as affordable. Has Wake Forest become one more community with a sign at it’s city limits that says unless you or your family make over $75,000 or more a year, don’t bother to move here? If this situation is any indication, I think the sign is already out there.
It’s a shame that, when people speak of George Mackie in the future, they won’t remember all the good things he did as the mayor of Wake Forest. Instead, this trailer park situation will be what people will remember most about him. Such a sad legacy. I hope he reconsiders!
Progress is good, BUT not at the expense of making people homeless! Landowner would get the same amount from ROC-USA. Does he know once it’s sold he has NO SAY in what happens to it? Why should he get to dictate who can live on land he’ll no longer own?!