David Tate is dying of blood cancer. At most, he has a few years left to live. But there’s another timeline that’s pressing at him: He has about seven weeks to leave Thornhill Mobile Home Community before the home he’s had for decades can be sold, rented to someone else or destroyed.
“This is where I planned on dying,” Tate told The Daily Times from his deck Friday, April 12.
He and other homeowners in the Eagleton-area park said the day before Easter they walked outside to notices fastened to their gates, their handrails and their front porches, warning them they had 90 days to sell their mobile home or move it. If it’s still there once that time expires, it could be taken over by the park owners, Caleb and Jillian Hazelbaker. The law gives them rights over some abandoned property left on their land.
The notice to leave isn’t a product of late payments, Tate said.
“I don’t owe him nothing,” he told the newspaper. He and several others said they offered to pay higher lot rent — their monthly payment is $450 — or fix any problem with their yards or homes. Those offers were declined, they said.
Now, though Tate has looked into moving with his mobile home and moving without it, he feels lost. His trailer is too old to move, apartments are full and even pay-by-the-week motels, he said, are too expensive.
Homeowners in the park told The Daily Times that their concerns about the order to leave are largely shared. Moving a trailer, even if it’s structurally sound, is expensive, and financing is hard to secure. Many residents lack the credit history needed for apartment rentals, and almost all said that they did not have the money for a move likely to cost thousands of dollars.
Records from the Tennessee Controller of the Treasury show that the Hazelbakers own about 50 parcels of land tied to the mobile home park.
The Daily Times reached out to the property management company for Thornhill by phone and made multiple calls to Caleb Hazelbaker. Hazelbaker answered a call Thursday afternoon, April 11, but requested a callback after the newspaper explained the subject of the call. He did not respond to subsequent calls made or voicemails left Thursday and Friday, April 11 and 12.
Residents react
The Thornhill homeowners range in age from infants to octogenarians. Many of them have lived in the same home for decades. Their year-long leases to the land on which their homes sit are up, they told the newspaper. After the leases expired, their rental agreements were converted to a month-to-month contract, they said.
The characteristic they mostly shared: a dearth of other options.
“We’re poor,” Thomas Pass said. “That doesn’t make us bad people,” noted Pass, who’s lived in the park for seven years. It does mean, “We can’t afford a $10,000 move.” He, his mother, his sister and other family members are all residents of the park.
Between lot rent, taxes, utilities and maintenance, Pass’ mother, Lisa Haun, she said she pays around $800 each month, even without a house payment.
Alice Henke, a 10-year resident and homeowner, said she has a degenerative illness and no idea where she’s headed next. “I’ve not found anything else,” she commented.
Ann Wade has lived in the park for 37 years. When she got the news, she said, “it felt like my heart just stopped.”
Wade, Henke and Pass agreed: “This is hell.”
Phyllis Slankard wept as she spoke to a Daily Times reporter about leaving her home. She’s lived in the same mobile home for over 30 years, and these days, she says she lives on less than $1,200 every month.
“When my mom died, and we sold her house, it was nothing like living here 30 years and losing this,” Slankard said through tears.
Slankard said that she pays her rent by automatic deposit each month. She showed the newspaper a recent rent receipt for $450.
“I can’t eat; I can’t sleep,” said homeowner Janice Moulden. She’s lived in her home for over 30 years, she said. Her son owns a home there as well; she spoke to the newspaper from his front porch. Since she got the notice, she’s been afraid of what’s next. She raised her children at Thornhill — they attended the nearby public schools in the Eagleton area.
“This is my stomping ground,” she said. Without the place that’s been her home for so long, she said she doesn’t know what she’ll do.
“It’s kind of sickening,” homeowner Jeff Gerber told the newspaper. He’s lived in his home since about 1992, he said.
And the lack of communication between property management and the residents over the order to leave was galling, residents said. “They didn’t even knock,” Moulden said.
“I get that (the landowners) have a right to do it, but this is not right,” said Pass, a father of three young children. His children go to, or will attend, the schools in the area, and he said he dreads telling them how their lives are about to change.
A renter in the neighborhood told The Daily Times said that he had not received any recent notices to leave.
Timeline
All of the residents the newspaper spoke to said they wished they’d had more time to prepare.
“It’s just hard,” Tate said, shaking his head.
The newspaper contacted movers specialized in transporting mobile homes in the East Tennessee area. The movers said that 90 days for around 20 homes, in total, is a tight timeline, though some said it could be done. Those contacted noted that they had lengthy backlogs of work to complete before they tackle new projects.
Earl Smith, who works as a mover and set-up contractor for Newport-based Mountain Movers Mobile Homes, said of the 90-day timeline, “That’s completely unreasonable.”
“They should have had 180 days at least,” Smith told the newspaper. The process for completing a move to inspection standards is lengthy, and it can be involved — at a basic level, it can cost around $8,500. More expensive trips, with additional work involved, can run between $15,000 and $16,000.
Other movers also quoted figures in the thousands.
Recourse
The law on such situations is clear: Property owners have the right to tell tenants that they need to leave land; they are required to provide 30 days of notice when they file evictions against month-to-month renters.
Some organizations and institutions have stepped in to connect the residents to resources. Several residents said they’ve also been in contact with Legal Aid of East Tennessee, which represents populations including low-income people, as well as elderly people, and points them to relevant resources.
A representative for the Blount County mayor’s office said that the government is currently working to connect residents with the Blount County Community Action Agency Office on Aging and Legal Aid, among other resources.
For low-income people hoping to rent in Blount County, though, the outlook is grim. Even if they can find a mover, residents with trailers made more than a decade ago can run into trouble with mobile home parks that decline to take older trailers.
The demand for subsidized housing is intense. The waitlist for housing choice vouchers through the Maryville Housing Authority, the county’s only public housing agency, is around 1,500 people long. The list has been closed for years as housing staff try to find landlords willing to rent to a growing number of possible tenants.
Most Popular
Comments / 0