The Robeson County Affordable Housing Coalition, formed in October 2018 after Hurricane Florence, has asked local officials to take action on Time Out's rental increases and asked the town to set up a rental assistance and transitional housing fund.
For the remaining 16 units, Lumberton Housing Authority Director Sheila Oxendine said there are roughly 900 people on the waiting list. Of 729 units in Lumberton's public housing program, 187 were put "offline" from the hurricanes, and another 526 are occupied.
There's not enough rental stock to accommodate people who have been displaced by the hurricanes, placing a strain on affordable housing resources, according to Gunter. In Lumberton, 13.5% of the population lives in mobile homes, more than double the national average.įor many, mobile homes may be the only affordable option after the county was devastated by hurricanes. Time Out owns more than 1,200 home unit rental lots in Lumberton, where residents live in a total of 1,416 mobile home units, according to the 2017 American Community Survey figures from the U.S. "People may not be able to move their homes, so you have incredible leverage over the people who rent that land," he said. Gunter said many advocates are worried about the dynamic between mobile home owners who rent land in these parks and park owners, since older mobile homes often can't be moved. "Folks may not be able to do repairs themselves, and if someone comes at them with the right offer, it can be tempting to take," he said. "In the aftermath of a disaster, folks are flooded, those land values are depressed, and if you have capital, there's economic opportunity there," Gunter said, adding that lower-income communities often live in disaster-prone areas such as flood plains. North Carolina Housing Coalition Executive Director Samuel Gunter said it's not uncommon to see property investors "start snatching stuff up," after a disaster because they see a chance to make money. In an emailed statement, Time Out said rents were raised consistent with current market rates and that some of the additional revenue will go toward community improvement. At the same time, the county was one of the hardest-hit areas during hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018.Īll but two of the properties are in Lumberton, where residents say an affordable housing crisis caused by the hurricanes has been exacerbated by Time Out, a Fort Lauderdale-based company. Time Out owns 23 properties in low-income Robeson County, many of which were bought in the past two years.
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"If I had to pay $465 I couldn't even pay the lights in this place," he said, gesturing to the dim lighting inside his trailer, where trash bags covered windows to keep the trailer cool on a sweltering 100-degree day. With a fixed Social Security disability income of about $791 a month, Lesane said it's impossible for him to pay that. But in February, five months after Hurricane Florence flooded the Lumberton region and shortly after Florida-based company Time Out Communities bought the park, his monthly lot rent more than tripled to $465. For eight years, James Lesane paid what he could for his mobile home lot rental every month - $150.
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