Gaston residents rally for change in local mobile home communities

Gaston County residents of several largely Spanish-speaking mobile home communities said that their landlord contracted with a towing company that towed their cars to Wellford, South Carolina, with no warning and charged them hundreds or thousands to get their cars back.

Jessica Torres-Pacheco, who lives in the Archdale mobile home community near Bessemer City and April Bean, who lives in the Hickory Village mobile home community in Gastonia, recently organized a march in Charlotte to raise awareness about the conditions of their communities.

The pair said they plan to host more protests later this month.

In December, families in the communities with more than two cars, those with cars parked on grass, and those with expired tags began having their cars towed overnight.

Some residents had their cars towed from in front of their homes and paid $2,000 to retrieve them, while others paid $3,500. In some cases, when two cars were towed, they were asked to surrender the title of one vehicle and pay $400 just to get one of the cars back or pay a total of $4,000 for both cars, Torres-Pacheco said.

Property managers told her that Christopher Michael Cole, the owner of South Carolina-based Affliction Towing, put stickers on the cars to warn residents that they were in violation, according to Torres-Pacheco.

However, many of the community members say they never saw a sticker at all, or the vehicles were towed within hours of the warning she said.

Cole declined to comment on the allegations.

“We have no comment, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

He has faced charges in South Carolina for towing-related incidents in previous years, and is currently facing pending charges in Spartanburg County for pointing a firearm at others, and malicious injury to animals or personal property valued under $2,000, according to the Spartanburg County Public Index.

North Carolina legislators are currently working on a bill that would address predatory towing in the state.

Josh Weiss, a spokesman for the property management company Affordable Housing Affiliates, said the company has recently terminated its contract with Affliction Towing for sites in North and South Carolina.

Overall, the towing situation was a tipping point for many residents that drove them to get involved, Torres-Pacheco said.

Beyond towing

In addition to the towing, the residents are also fighting for better living conditions in general.

NC Action, a group dedicated to addressing social and economic inequality has become involved in the movement.

With NC Action's assistance, the community is organizing protests, marches and door-knocking sessions to inform other residents and request a renegotiation with property owners to receive deeds to their homes and safer living conditions.

In her community, Torres-Pacheco said she and fellow residents go days without access to water every summer due to well upgrades that have not been completed by the property managers in the three years she has lived in her home.

In the Hickory Village community, Bean said she has reported sewage leaks on the property to management and environmental authorities and has not seen any resolution.

Weiss said the wells are being voluntarily upgraded in the Archdale community in recent weeks, and it is common for wells to experience shut downs in the summer months.

He also said the Hickory Village community does not have a sewer system and suggests that residents who are experiencing issues with their septic systems file a maintenance request.

Torres-Pacheco added that those who own their homes in these communities do not receive a deed to the home.

Additionally, if a resident has too many infractions, which Torres-Pacheco said can be given for a wide variety of reasons, they could receive an eviction notice to vacate the land.

However, they often find they cannot take their home with them because the hitches have been cut off of the mobile homes.

According to Weiss, the land was purchased through a Fannie Mae loan, which requires all hitches to be fully covered or cut off of the homes.

He said residents can reattach the hitches when they are ready to move for a small fee, and added that residents have the option to cover their hitches.

As for title, Weiss said the state is responsible for issuing titles in many cases and management is happy to help residents navigate that process.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gaston residents rally for change in local mobile home communities