Agenda Abstract - 01-30-2018 Assembly of Governments

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