03/17/2002
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mobile home dwellers fear orders to move on
BRYAN LONG
ATLANTA, Georgia -- The living room of the 1981 doublewide trailer is a mess. Sam Ruff, his wife and their two children have gathered their possessions in small piles, ready to be packed into cardboard boxes for the move.
The Ruffs live in the way of progress. Kennesaw Mountain Mobile Home Estates is being cleared to make way for a road. The road to be cut from Barrett Parkway will lead to homes valued up to $500,000, a handful of office buildings, large retail shops and a handsome profit for many people.
There will be no profit for Ruff, only loss.
As in most states, owners of trailer parks may sell or develop their land at will. Often, landlords need to give only 30 days' notice to evict acres of tenants who pay rent to park their homes on small patches of land. The working-class tenants face a web of federal regulations, state laws and local ordinances that govern mostly where the trailers can't be moved.
Any home older than 25 years is worth only its weight as scrap metal. The homes are prone to fire and other disasters, so they're deemed unsafe by federal standards and aren't allowed to relocate. Homes older than 10 years are in a gray area. Many counties restrict where they can relocate. And in counties with no restrictions, such as Cobb, most mobile home park owners won't accept them.
State legislation that might help Georgia's poorest homeowners is stuck in a subcommittee.
Meanwhile, Ruff must move his home and his family to a new lot. In February, he was told to be out by April 15. He's not alone. Thirty-six other trailers --- each the home of an immigrant family, a paycheck-to-paycheck bachelor or an elderly widow --- must move to who knows where.
Ruff's deadline is imposed by his landlord, Barry Teague, the owner of Walton Communities.
Teague, who told tenants in 1999 the land would be developed, must evict most of them this spring. If he's late clearing the property, the neighboring developers may be late building their road.
With 88 acres of woods to transform into a multimillion-dollar urban village of glass offices and brick houses, the shabby mobile home park and its workaday residents almost disappear.
Teague doesn't have experience running a mobile home park. He's a developer. He bought the property because it borders Barrett Parkway and a huge development project, Ridenour. The project has received praise from the governor and slowly is building steam with residents and businesses.
'It's progress'
Moving a trailer isn't easy. Skirting must come off before the trailer is jacked up. Tie straps are clipped, decks are torn down, axles are secured and blocks are removed. And then there's the on- site setup to put everything back so a county inspector can be scheduled for a site visit.
Ruff estimates it will cost his family $2,500 to move his doublewide.
It's a process that will take 10 to 15 days and will leave the Ruffs with a lot of questions and, temporarily, without a home.
�Where will we stay for those days?� Charlotte Ruff asks her husband.
�How about a motel?� offers Shawn Ruff, 12.
�Well, we may have to,� Sam Ruff says. �It could be one of those extended-stay hotels.�
The expenses continue to build for the Ruffs, including back taxes, moving fees, set-up fees, deposits and an extended-stay motel.
The couple has no cash savings and lives on money from two jobs. Sam upholsters cars, trucks and vans for Marietta Auto Trim. Charlotte works in Addison Elementary School's cafeteria.
But the Ruffs are luckier than many of Kennesaw Mountain's residents. They have a place to move, if they find the cash.
Living in a mobile home, especially an older one, is loaded with problems. Owning the home without owning the land is sometimes like having a boat with no water.
Many people, with many interests --- from bureaucrats to developers --- control where portable houses can be parked.
Cobb imposes none of its own restrictions on where mobile homes of any age relocate. But the dwindling number of mobile home parks are choosy about allowing new residents.
Marilyn Hagy plays judge for a trailer park near Kennesaw Mountain. She's the manager at Castle Lake Mobile Home Community, and she has the power to say who parks on her lots.
�I want a picture of the home,� Hagy said. �I want to see what it looks like.�
Lot rents at Castle Lake are $345 for a doublewide, plus the cost of water and sewer. At Kennesaw Mountain, lot rents are more than $100 cheaper.
Norberto Manzano lives in Kennesaw Mountain with his family. He builds trusses for new homes. But he may lose his own home because of the higher rental fees and the $3,000 it will take to move his 1995 singlewide.
�I don't have the money right now,� he said. �I don't have it.�
He's unsure of his options.
For Ruff, it's a difficult burden, but one he saw coming.
�I'm not mad at the company or anything,� Ruff said. �It's progress. It happens.�
Not just country clubs
Ruff is not the first Georgian to face the dilemma of where to move the mobile home he owns. State Sen. Doug Haines (D-Athens) fears he may not be the last.
In the summer of 2001, about 450 residents of Garden Springs Mobile Home Park in Athens were told to move out.
The last of the tenants moved March 1. Some have checked their families into hotels.
Haines introduced a bill this session that would allow owners of mobile homes to be notified when the land they rent is up for sale - -- before a deal is closed. His bill also would allow the homeowners in parks to have the first chance to buy the land at the same price.
�It's good for Georgia to look out for homeowners, and it shouldn't be just for people in country clubs and behind gated communities,� Haines said.
Other states, including Florida, New Hampshire and New Jersey, have passed similar laws. Haines says 50 communities have been saved in New Hampshire. The Athens residents were able to top the buyer's offer, but only after the deal had closed.
The law wouldn't solve every problem. Some communities wouldn't be able to match a developer's deep pockets. Some would never even organize to try.
The bill comes too late for Garden Springs and Kennesaw Mountain.
That leaves Ruff to salve the fears of his children.
Stacey Ruff, 15, doesn't want to leave her friends.
�It's hard on me and my brother because we go to school here,� she said. �The people I ride on the bus with I've known since elementary school.�
Developer Teague has given the Ruffs and a handful of other tenants an extension until school is out.
Eventually, the tenants of all 57 occupied trailers will have to go --- somewhere.