RESEARCH IN ACTION

The South Florida chapter of Jobs with Justice and the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy (RISEP) collaborated on a participatory action research project to document the problems as well as the community vitality that exists in mobile home parks in Miami-Dade County.

The research supported by the Sociological Initiatives Foundation focused on mobile home parks facing the threat of redevelopment and displacement.

A housing safety-net at risk

Are mobile home parks at risk? The Miami-based members of the Vecinos Unidos Mobile Home Council think so.

Mobile home park residents have vivid memories of real estate developers gobbling up parks to build condos and shopping malls. The real estate bubble may have popped, but the risks of displacement remain.

The transfer of ownership of parks now in bankruptcy is yet another threat that might push residents out of their homes. The combined threats of hurricanes and poor park conditions cast a shadow on residents with few housing options.

“Mobile home parks are the last vestige of affordable housing for working people,” says Kit Rafferty, Director of the South Florida Chapter of Jobs With Justice.

The Vecinos Unidos Mobile Home Council, a member of South Florida Jobs with Justice  worked with the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy to explore the scope of the problem.

Vecinos Unidos members and colleagues from RISEP interviewed 250 residents of six parks Miami-Dade County. The surveys asked residents about income, safety, maintenance and concerns about losing their homes.

At risk of being homeless

The study documented nearly 60,000 people in living in 90 mobile home parks in Miami-Dade County.

The interviews uncovered a story of residents working hard to get by in a tight economy. Mobile home park residents have average annual incomes around $10,000 a year. The low rents and support of neighbors during tough times are often what keep families afloat. With average rents at $400 to $450 a month, mobile home parks represent an important part of a Florida’s shrinking affordable housing stock.

The interviews confirmed the concerns of Vecinos Unidos members that mobile home residents are vulnerable to displacement. Half of all residents surveyed, for example, expressed a concern that they would be homeless if they had to leave their homes.

Residents often noted that the parks’ poor physical and safety conditions were often ignored or, in the worst cases, used to justify dramatic rent increases that reduced affordability.

Solution-focused advocacy

RISEP researcher, Marcos Feldman worked closely to help the Members of Vecinos Unidos to design the research questions, collect the data and analyze the results.

The data highlighted the unique vulnerability of mobile home park residents to displacement and the destabilizing social and economic cost to working families and the state. More importantly, the data suggested that that the political, legal and regulatory rules of the state and county disproportionally favored park owners and housing developers over low -income residents.

“It’s part of a larger story about the piecemeal restructuring of cities in the United States – a class inversion like in Europe where low-income people are pushed out for the benefit of the middle and upper classes,” said Feldman.

The research helped the women of Vecinos Unidos organize more members who could tell their story. The organizing work has moved from building homeowner associations to exploring new models of land ownership in which residents could own the land.

Vecinos Unidos recently obtained the support of the Councilors of Real Estate to develop models of land ownership that would prevent this form of affordable housing stock from disappearing. To read the full report click here.

Struggles and success with redevelopment and displacement in mobile home parks in South Florida

Author: Marcos Feldman

Contact: Kit Raffery, Executive Director South Florida Jobs with Justice – kit@sfjwj.org

Date: March 2010

Featuring the South Florida Jobs with Justice/Vecinos Unidos/RISEP, grantees of the Sociological Initiatives Foundation