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Greensboro Mobile Home Residents Demand Meeting To Discuss Displacement

Tenants and members of United Neighbors of Hiatt St. Mobile Homes Association could face displacement over proposed redevelopment in Greensboro. Photo courtesy Siembra NC.

A group of Latino residents in Greensboro is asking for a meeting with a property management agency to discuss a request to vacate a mobile home park.

Residents with the United Neighbors of Hiatt St. Mobile Homes Association have written a letter to the Family Properties management company demanding a meeting to discuss a request to vacate.

According to a news release from Siembra NC, the company sent a notice in July to the residents of the Jamison Mobile Home Park giving them until the end of September to move, or the end of August if they're renting. Mobile home occupants say they fear displacement during the pandemic, despite the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention extending an eviction moratorium in counties with high COVID-19 infection rates.

According to the news release, the community is located near downtown, with many residents relying on public transportation for doctor's appointments and grocery visits. Some mobile homeowners say there are no other places to move a trailer within city limits.

The Greensboro Planning and Zoning Commission recently approved a rezoning application that does not acknowledge the presence of the mobile home park, which houses 18 families.

A number of local advocacy groups are backing the residents in their effort to stay in their homes.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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