Adam Rust's blog

A rezoning request that would have forced the mass eviction of 160 Raleigh families will likely be dropped, according to an interview from the developer.

The NCGA ratified H1134, the bill to authorize and fund the cleanup of North Carolina's abandoned mobile homes, on Tuesday.

If you have picked up this week's Independent Weekly, you can't help but notice the cover story. Bob Geary has authored "Paradise Lost: Mobile Home Park Residents Caught in a Catch-22." Its a great story, highlighting the plight of 180 families at Homestead Village Mobile Home Park who are destined to lose their homes if the City approves a rezoning of their community.
The back story is that a lot of the credit for this is due to BlueNC! Blogging online leads to print sometimes, and without going into too many details, this is the case here. So, I want to lend a shout-out to BlueNC.

One North Carolina County, Brunswick, has quietly removed more than 1,200 abandoned mobile homes from its environs since 2001. This article provides a profile of Brunswick's Appearance and Code Enforcement (ACE) program.

Over the next several days, Manufactured Housing Reader will present a series of sketches on individual Homestead Village Mobile Home Park residents. If the Raleigh City Council approves a re-zoning petition for the Homestead property, in a vote scheduled Aug. 5th, the park owner plans to move forward with a sale to individuals seeking to expel residents and re-develop the land to commercial property. Many of these residents have no recourse at all.

H1134, the bill to provide a remedy to the problem of all those abandoned mobile homes in North Carolina (40,000, count 'em!) made its way through the House Finance Committee. It went through some notable changes.

Two changes were proposed to H1700 (Prevent Displacement of Manufactured Housing) today in the House. Neither will derail the bill from having a chance to be passed this year. Nonetheless, they represent some interesting changes.

H1700, the bill sponsored by Susan Fisher (D-Asheville) to prevent the displacement of Manufactured Housing Residents, moved a step closer to becoming law this week.

Data from the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts shows that the pace of foreclosures continues to increase. In the first five months of 2008, there were 23,507 foreclosure filings. That is an increase of 3,495 relative to the same period last year in North Carolina.

There are 40,000 abandoned mobile homes in North Carolina. (Census 2000) Philip Haire (D-Haywood), has a bill in the House that will give counties the ability to change that. Read about it here.