In March, the Town of Chapel Hill faced backlash for its handling of the 1200 MLK Project —a proposed redevelopment plan that, if denied by the town council, would have left 73 families living in the Tar Heel Mobile Home Park at risk for displacement.

Concerns over the Tar Heel Mobile Home Park highlighted the need to protect low-income residents in manufactured home communities.

Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle said the Chapel Hill project revived interest in these communities across the county

“When we talk about affordable housing, this is a community that we don’t want to forget about,” Lavelle said.

Carrboro currently has four manufactured home parks that house more than 90 residents.

Map of Development Sites near manufactured home communities in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area. (Photo Courtesy of Town of Carrboro)

At its May 4 meeting, Carrboro Town Council discussed its own manufactured home communities and the possibility of creating a regionally unified “manufactured home strategy.” Lavelle said the strategy would be part of a long-term solution to protect their manufactured home residents from being displaced.

“You want to make it so that folks can have some type of an equity investment in their homes, and it varies from park to park,” Lavelle said.

Also at the meeting, the Orange County Board of Commissioners presented recommendations from its Mobile Home Park Work Group to the Carrboro Town Council. The overall goal of the work group is to create equity and economic self-sufficiency for residents.

Recommendations include short term strategies like an improvement and expansion program for existing parks, and a repair program to fix or replace damaged mobile homes. It also includes long term solutions like mobile home park development and further utilizing the Greene Tract to provide space for displaced residents.

Lavelle said more study into the manufactured home parks is needed to create those solutions, which are still under consideration.

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