Residents of Fairfax County’s manufactured home communities pressed county leaders yesterday (Tuesday) to do more to protect the properties from redevelopment and those who live there from displacement.
“We don’t want to be moved out of the county — we’d like to stay in our homes,” said Denia Moya, a resident of the Harmony Place Mobile Home Park (8018 Richmond Highway) in Hybla Valley.
That Route 1 complex of about 70 homes is one of seven manufactured-home properties totaling 1,769 units across the county. Typically, residents own the homes but rent the land, leaving them vulnerable to redevelopment and increasing costs.
“Every time the rent goes up, we’re closer to losing our homes,” Moya told county supervisors.
Her comments came as supervisors adopted a series of comprehensive plan and zoning updates to encourage the preservation of manufactured home parks as an affordable housing option, and updated relocation guidelines to support residents that face displacement.
The proposals had support of the planning commission and county staff, and were approved by supervisors on a series of 9-0 votes. The supplant zoning regulations that largely had been unchanged since the late 1970s.
Several Board members acknowledged more needed to be done.
“We’re probably not everywhere we want to be” on protecting residents, said Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck, adding that “we need to make sure we don’t leave people behind.”
Residents living in the communities, and advocates for them, pressed for action.
“These residents are among the most vulnerable” to redevelopment pressures, said Jill Norcross, executive director of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance.
Norcross praised supervisors for making changes in the relocation guidelines, but said there was “room for improvement.”
A number of speakers pressed for providing fair-market value of the properties for those who are displaced. The relocation guidelines include such a provision, but it doesn’t go as far as some would like.
The new relocation guidelines say residents permanently displaced from a site should be paid the value of the home itself (not including the land), with a minimum of $13,000 for a single-wide unit or $22,000 for a double-wide property. Anyone displaced also would have access to relocation stipends.
But in many cases, despite their name, the mobile homes are too old to be moved, and even if a unit can be relocated, the county has little land that would provide a suitable site, said Marianela Funes, an organizer with Tenants and Workers United.
That organization and other advocates want the county to help residents band together and buy the land underneath their homes, either themselves or through a land cooperative.
The state government, through the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, has launched a pilot program to encourage resident or nonprofit land ownership.
State law requires the owner of a manufactured home park to provide state officials at least 90 days’ notice prior to accepting a purchase offer. This year alone, the housing department received notifications from owners of more than 50 parks statewide.
County staff said there currently are no pending plans for the sale or redevelopment of any of the seven communities across Fairfax — but their futures remain uncertain, given the underlying value of the land.
Having long-term stability would ease the mind of residents like Hilde Ore Sotomayor, who told supervisors she recently purchased a manufactured home.
Buying the unit was just the start of the funding it requires, she said.
“These are old buildings,” Ore Sotomayor said. “I’m investing the remainder of my savings — I’ve been renovating from the floor up.”
Finding more creative ways to keep communities intact is a goal of the Fairfax County NAACP, said its housing chair, Mary Paden.
Residents “already have a sense of place and community, and they want to keep it,” she said.
Paden also supported housing cooperatives for land ownership, suggesting county leaders should make public land available if some residents find themselves displaced.
“Follow your own moral code … to help these homeowners,” she said.
Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk said preservation of current housing remains a “central and pivotal goal.” His district is home to the most manufactured homes in the county.
As for some of the more creative proposals made at the hearing, including options for communal ownership?
“This is not what we’re discussing today,” Lusk said, “[but] this is something we are continuing to look at.”
Changes adopted to the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan and zoning ordinance only affect new development on the sites, not residents who already live there, unless they plan to add on to their properties. Lusk noted “issues with communication” when it came to explaining those nuances to impacted residents in recent months.
Because of gaps in communication, “there’s some fear” among residents, he acknowledged.
Efforts to update zoning regulations and the relocation guidelines have been ongoing for more than a year. They followed recommendations from a county task force that looked at the issue and delivered its report in 2022.
Harmony Place image via Google Maps
