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11 <br /> trr1, sin. <br /> For many years, there has been interest in addressing the vulnerability of residents living in mobile <br /> home parks in Orange County.The Board of Commissioners allocated funds in the FY 2015-16 and FY <br /> 2016-17 budgets to address land banking of mobile home parks and/or to assist in the acquisition of <br /> property for future residential development as an affordable housing alternative.An ad hoc committee <br /> of local housing partners and county staff began meeting last fiscal year to discuss and evaluate the <br /> opportunities and obstacles.The voices of mobile home residents were not a part of this initial process, <br /> and the committee recognized the need for their input. Therefore, Navigators with the Family Success <br /> Alliance, who have personal and programmatic connections to mobile home park residents, partnered <br /> with the county manager's office to visit various mobile home parks during a four-week period in August <br /> and September to conduct a survey and gather input from residents. <br /> Smilrvey Meth , l el smgy <br /> Out of approximately 100 mobile home parks in Orange County, 8 parks were selected by the Planning <br /> Department as areas of special interest owing to developer activity or an interest in general information <br /> about residents and living conditions.These parks were assigned to FSA Navigators, who had a goal of a <br /> 33% response rate, or around 100 surveys total. In Table 1, each of the eight priority mobile home parks <br /> are listed,with the goal and actual number of surveys collected.The Planning Department's selections <br /> for those parks at high risk of displacement were mostly in Chapel Hill and Carrboro; although these <br /> parks represent a small fraction of all parks in the county, these parks are overrepresented in the survey. <br /> In early August, a letter was sent to residents of the selected parks to notify them that surveys would be <br /> conducted (see Appendix A). Survey piloting and data collection took place from August 9, 2017 to <br /> September 11, 2017. Each survey took between an hour to an hour and a half, and 82%of them were <br /> conducted in Spanish. Families who participated were given a $10 gift card to Walmart. <br /> The Navigators used snowball sampling—each of them had contacts within the mobile home parks, and <br /> enlisted those contacts in helping them find other families who would be willing to participate.They also <br /> waited at the school bus stop, mailboxes, and other gathering areas in order to begin conversations with <br /> residents and encourage their participation.This sampling method means that there may be selection <br /> bias in terms of who agreed to undertake the survey.The Navigators did knock on doors cold, but some <br /> families refused to open the door or refused to participate. <br /> Specifically, because sometimes the maintenance workers live in the mobile home parks, they received <br /> the introductory letter explaining the survey and asking for participation. Many of the residents <br /> expressed fear that the maintenance workers had told their landlords about the survey and would <br /> retaliate against them if they responded.This fear was especially prevalent in some mobile home parks <br /> compared to others. Despite the best efforts of our Navigators, some families refused to participate. <br /> 3 <br />