Mobile home park community stung by landlord’s order

JESSICA MORENO

Residents of Forest Park Mobile Home Park in Charlotte are on the verge of displacement after developer Wood Partners announced their intention to rezone the property for an apartment community. Many of the residents own their homes but don’t have the means to relocate to a new park.

It has been more than a year since residents of Forest Park Mobile Home Park were notified of its closing in 2026.

After the property located at 7230 Nada Park Road was sold, residents were told they had 24 months to vacate. But for many residents, there will never be enough time to recover from their looming displacement.

“There is nowhere to go, they can’t move their home, they can’t sell it, they can't abandon it either, they have invested too much,” said Jessica Moreno of Action NC who has been advocating for Forest Park residents since spring. 

Most residents have been paying $500 a month for the lot on which their trailer sits. Needless to say, finding a new home within that price range in the vicinity is a tall order. 
“Where can a family of 6-8 find adequate housing for rent at $500 a month in Charlotte?” Moreno asked. 

Further hampering efforts to vacate are state laws, permit regulations and code restrictions that make moving a mobile home from one location to another prohibitively expensive in many cases, and flat out impossible in others. 
As a result, Forest Park residents must abandon their homes. 

Developer Wood Partners, which builds apartment housing across the U.S., bought the property as part of a larger 19.5-acre tract along Prosperity Church Road. The developers explained their intentions in the rezoning application they submitted to the city of Charlotte in 2024. Their plan is building “up to 395 residential units and up to 25,000 square feet of nonresidential use.” 

“I am deeply connected to this work because of…dealing with the exact same thing, displacement, gentrification, and the feeling of betrayal from [Mecklenburg County],” Moreno said. “The loss of our homes and community caused a lot of trauma even to this day.”

Moreno was displaced along with her family and neighbors from their mobile park home in Matthews in 2017. 

Moreno says the situation she previously faced and Forest Park is a recurring one. 

“This issue … predominantly affects my community,” she said. “It became very clear to me, it was a trend,” adding that other area mobile home communities are in “grave danger” of displacement as well. 

“When will our city stop displacing people of color in the name of progress?” Moreno asked during a recent press conference staged by Action NC and Forest Park residents demanding greater relocation assistance. 

“In a rapidly growing city like Charlotte, we understand that there is a need to build housing,” says Moreno. “However, the housing that is being built is market rate, if we are not careful, soon all the people of color, essential workers, working class people, will be pushed out. Once again, we build on the backs of poor people.” 

Charlotte City Council member Renee Johnson, whose district includes Forest Park, has a more balanced perspective on the issue. 

“I am always advocating for affordable housing,” said Johnson, who says she resents the implication that council is quick to accommodate big money developers over the citizens they represent. “People are being priced out of Charlotte.” 

While Johnson acknowledges the shortage of affordable housing options, she points out that the city has made continued efforts to protect, promote and preserve affordable housing. 

“[Charlotte] is doing something about it,” she said. “It’s just not enough.” 

One of the city’s offerings has been the Housing Trust Fund which was established in 2002 to provide gap financing to developers to help cover the cost of building, maintaining and restoring affordable housing developments. 
According to the city’s website, since its conception the HTF has provided over $231 million toward some 11,000 affordable housing units. 

But in any expanding city, keeping up with affordable housing is always a challenge. 

“This is not just a Charlotte problem,” says Johnson. 

According to a 2023 article published by the Pew Research Center, almost 50% of people who rent are “cost burdened,” or paying more than they can realistically afford each month. 
Broader economic issues such as overall inflation and employment challenges contribute as well. 

Johnson emphasizes the gravity of this situation is not lost on her or other city leaders. 

“When I first heard about [Forest Park closing] I was heartbroken,” she said. “I drove out there and passed my card out. I wanted to make sure that these residents were aware of their options.” 
Johnson relates that while she was walking around Forest Park, she realized that the majority of residents were Spanish speaking only. This did not impede her intentions. 
“I organized a virtual meeting and made sure there would be interpreters present,” she says. 

City records show that on Nov. 20, 2024, all residents of adjacent properties of the Prosperity Road tract were mailed notices about a virtual community meeting scheduled for Dec. 4, 2024. 

Additionally, the letter provided an email address for residents to use in order to submit questions and concerns if they were unable to attend the virtual meeting itself. 
Johnson also says that she has continuously spoken with developers throughout the process in regards to Forest Park residents and any assistance that might be provided. 

According to current North Carolina regulations, if a mobile home park is going to be closed, the owners are required to issue written notice to all residents at least 180 days before closing, or roughly six months. Forest Park residents were given four times that. 

That isn’t the only consolation extended that many consider generous. 

North Carolina does not require mobile park owners to offer financial relocation assistance, even when residents owns the trailer. 

Still, Wood Partners has offered $5,500 payment to each household within the park. An additional payment of up to $10,000 has been offered by Valleo Residential, a property company that owns dozens of mobile home parks in the region to relocate to one of its other properties. 

Forest Park residents, however, are not impressed. During the October press conference, they issued a joint statement which said in part, “What they’re offering us is not enough to relocate or rebuild our lives. $5,500 is too little, and even the $10,000 they offer if we move to a Valléo community is not a real solution. Those communities are far away and would destabilize our families’ lives and finances.” 

Valleo has vacancies at some Charlotte properties, but the ones offered in the Forest Park relocation packet are primarily in York and Lancaster, South Carolina, and King’s Mountain, some 35 miles west. 

“What is being offered is nowhere near enough to replace what we are losing. We have already paid off our homes. $5,500 or even $10,000 won’t cover the cost of buying another home, moving, inspections, permits, and paying double rent,” the residents’ statement declared. “We would be forced into debt or homelessness.” 

The statement also stressed that the loss was not only material, pointing out that relocating at a great distance would upend employment, schooling and religious worship. 

Residents concluded the statement by saying that nothing less than $150,000 per resident would adequately suffice for them to uproot their lives and relocate “without losing everything.” 

According to Moreno, similar gestures of resistance have yielded results in some other area mobile home parks and apartment buildings. 

She cites several cases in which issues such as predatory leases and substandard living conditions were brought forward by residents and successfully addressed by property owners. 

Moreno also says that in cases involving displacement, monetary relocation assistance has been negotiated, including her own former home where each household received $8,000 from developers. 
Demanding $150,000 however, is unlikely to elicit any action, particularly from developers who have already offered $5,500 to each resident. 

But compensation isn’t the only happy ending residents would accept. 

“Residents hope to stay in place,” Moreno said. “That is the best outcome for the community. I’d like to challenge that if the rezoning gets tossed, that we should as a community figure out a way to support this property to become a resident owned community. 

However, Wood Partners has made it clear that even if the rezoning application is denied, they will move forward with the park’s closing. 

And with little incentive, it is unlikely Wood Partners will change their mind, which is something Johnson wants to make sure all Charlotteans are clear on. 

“This is a sad situation,” she said, “[but] it is not up to the city. The developer is going to sell the property regardless.” 

“This is not fair compensation. It is displacement. We deserve real solutions,” the residents’ statement concluded. 
Although there is little legal recourse, Moreno says she and residents remain optimistic. 
“When people organize, they win,” she said. 

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