‘This is home’: Families, elderly fear for future if Cary mobile home park is sold

In 2005, Ann and Steve Curlee packed their belongings tightly in their mobile home to move to a new park 15 miles away.

The grounds they had lived on since the late 1980s in Morrisville were being sold, and the families who had settled there had been asked to leave.

Now in their 70s, the Curlees may have to start packing again if their home in Cary’s Chatham Estates Mobile Home Park is sold.

It could cost tens of thousands of dollars to uproot and move their mobile home, which was built in the early 2000s.

“It stinks,” said Steve, a 74-year-old Vietnam veteran who works part-time at Food Lion. The couple, married in 1976, raised their son, Ricky, in Morrisville and Cary.

Ann, 71, held back tears, saying, “I thought this would be the last move that we had to make.”

A bulletin board at Chatham Estates advertises spaces at a mobile home park in Winston-Salem, about a two-hour drive from Cary. The couple is looking for lots nearby since Ann works in the cafeteria at Meredith College in Raleigh.

Built in 1965, Chatham Estates is nestled beneath tall oaks off SE Maynard Road behind the town’s Division of Motor Vehicles office. The property shares nearly 38 acres with the Chatham Square shopping center less than a mile from downtown Cary.

Since March, many of the park’s 700 residents, including over 200 families, have been worried about the park being sold to developers.

Chatham Estates, one of the few affordable places left to live in the fast-growing town of over 174,000 residents. and Chatham Square were put on the market in March for $50 million by Lee & Associates. The company is working with property owner Curtis Westbrook Sr., who is in his 80s and has said his age and heart problems are forcing him to sell.

As of October, there is no buyer.

Local nonprofits, like Durham-based ONE Wake, have been working to help residents organize. Those who can vote say they are taking the matter to the ballot box in Tuesday’s town election to hold candidates to their promises of making Cary a place where all people can live.

“We’re here”

If you ask many North Carolinians, the town of Cary has a reputation.

The former farm town has become the second-largest city in Wake County, the site of science and technology companies and, soon, a campus for Apple. Known by some as the “Containment Area for Relocated Yankees,” Cary is often viewed as wealthy and white.

But this isn’t the full picture, and for many low-income residents, this incomplete narrative hides communities like Chatham Estates in plain sight.

“We’re here,” said Javier Zuniga, 21. “I went to Cary High, and I remember telling my friends where I lived, and they didn’t know where I was talking about.”

Zuniga is one of the many young people born and raised in Chatham Estates. It’s been a safe space for him and other children from working-class families. Not all Chatham Estates residents are Latino, but more than half are from Mexico, Central or South America. They’ve made a living in Cary working in restaurants, construction or landscaping.

“We knew it was going to happen sooner or later with the deteriorating health of Mr. Westbrook,” Javier’s mother, Angelina Zuniga, said in Spanish, with her son interpreting. “But it was frustrating for us because it was going to affect us. We’ve lived here our whole lives.”

The family moved into Chatham Estates in 1988.

Since March, Angelina Zuniga said she has battled depression, and her husband often can’t sleep at night. They don’t know what they will do if the property is sold.

“The little ones talk when they are waiting for the (school) bus, and our young son is affected by that,” she said. “We have to take him to a doctor because he is anxious.”

The family also has a neighbor who is Moroccan, doesn’t speak English and lives alone.

“Her sons visit every now and then,” Javier Zuniga said. “But with her being by herself, it’s worrying knowing that they’re selling the place. Where will she go?”

The Zunigas are among a number of residents in Chatham Estates seeking some compensation if they must move.

The relationship between owner and tenants

In 2019, North Carolina had 4.7 million homes, with about 12% of them mobile homes, according to the U.S. Census. About two-thirds of the mobile homes were owner-occupied and served mostly working-class, older people, and immigrant families.

Wake County has fewer than 11,000 mobile homes in towns like Garner, Raleigh and Wake Forest.

Near Chatham Estates, residents in the 42-acre Mobile Estates mobile home park, also known as Las Americas, fought to get the titles of their mobile homes from the property owner.

Katia Roebuck, an organizer for ONE Wake, said the organization recently spoke to residents of Las Americas, warning them to learn their rights and organize in case the property is ever sold. Over 300 families live there.

“I told them, this is what’s happening to your neighbors. Whatever happens here will set the precedent of what could happen to you,” Roebuck said. “We must continue organizing in order to be able to get something done.”

Edith Liborio has been outspoken about the risk of displacement since learning about the situation at Chatham Estates.

She moved to the community in 2001 from Mexico, speaking no English, and recalls carrying a small pot of tamales on one hip and her infant daughter on the other, selling to neighbors in order to make a living.

“Sometimes I would sleep for an hour or two,” Liborio said in Spanish. “I worked to be able to save to open my own restaurant. I’ve been working for 10 years here.”

After years of pushing a food cart around town, in 2016, Liborio opened Esmeralda Grill in Chatham Square. She said Westbrook helped her apply for permits for the restaurant.

“We love and care for Mr. Westbrook,” Liborio said. “When my husband and I first opened, he offered to help. I just want to make sure that everybody knows that he is a good person. Without his support, maybe we couldn’t open this business.”

One Christmas, when money was tight, Liborio remembered, Westbrook gave all the kids in the Chatham Estates community $5.

“(Westbrook) told us that if he was in good health, he would not sell,” Liborio said. “Because that’s his life too. I believe he sacrificed a lot to have all of this. It’s been a long relationship.”

Westbrook did not respond to an email for comment from The News & Observer. In March, he told The N&O that while he loved his residents, he didn’t have “any control over it. It’s purely up to who buys it. It would make no sense for me to put conditions on the sale.”

Residents have considered buying the property from Westbrook, Roebuck said. But the process can be complex, she said.

The measure of affordable housing

On Sept. 18, ONE Wake held a candidate forum featuring five of the nine people running for Cary Town Council. The focus of the forum was the displacement of Chatham Estates residents and business owners.

Displacement is a growing concern in towns like Cary and around the Triangle. Working-class families and essential workers like teachers, first responders, and construction and domestic workers are unable to afford to live in Cary.

Since 2010, Cary has added about 20,000 jobs in those occupations but has lost about 4,000 housing units that cost under $1,000 a month to rent, according to the Cary Housing Plan, which was approved by the town council in 2021. The plan helps families buy and rent homes in the town.

Each of the candidates committed to backing community-led efforts for affordable housing and continuing town initiatives like the designated $5 million of its American Rescue Plan Act money to support affordable housing services, including financial support to nonprofits and emergency utility assistance.

“We are concerned about the potential loss of a large community of affordable housing,” said Danna Widmar, the town’s assistant manager. “Cary has also utilized town-owner property to develop affordable housing, notable the 921 SE Maynard site.”

The new housing development will be completed by 2025 and will have 126 units of mixed-income housing, Widmar said. Residents who make 30% of the area’s median income could afford a unit there.

Still, residents say rents, even in some affordable housing developments, are still high. In Cary, on average, renters spend about $1,300 or more for an apartment.

Chatham Estates is about a six-minute drive from Cary’s new mixed-use development Fenton. The Allison at Fenton, a luxury apartment complex, has one-bedroom units for $1,700. ONE Wake and residents have questioned how the town measures housing affordability as the town grows with new developments that could price out established and new residents.

Roebuck highlights the struggles many non-English speaking families face with trying to get approved for apartments and advocate for themselves once they are new in places.

“Some people have told me they have been given apartments that weren’t ready. There’s dirty carpet, dirty walls, the stove isn’t clean. These are apartments in Cary where they charge $1,400 and up,” Roebuck said. “Many of them don’t speak English, many are undocumented, which is not a crime, it’s a reality. So, they just agree to stay and accept what is there, hoping and believing people will change things.”

Roebuck hopes the residents will soon have a chance to meet with Westbrook. Shek and ONE Wake have not been able to meet with him in person to express their appreciation and concerns.

“What better source can we have to answer questions other than Mr. Westbrook?” Roebuck asked. “We don’t want to put pressure on him. We’re not going to ask him for money. We just want to meet with him for them. They want to say thank you, and we want him to hear that the organizing efforts are to ensure these working families are fairly compensated.”