{"id":1172,"date":"2017-04-24T21:08:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T01:08:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2017-04-28T21:36:14","modified_gmt":"2017-04-29T01:36:14","slug":"trailer-park-trials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/2017\/04\/24\/trailer-park-trials\/","title":{"rendered":"Trailer Park Trials"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Brooke Warner<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"IMG_2962-1-1024x683\"<\/a>

(Photo by Brooke Warner)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

On\u00a0most\u00a0sunny days, Dorothy\u00a0Wicther\u00a0and\u00a0her son\u00a0Kyle can be found sitting in old lawn chairs outside\u00a0Dorothy’s\u00a0trailer. They don\u2019t talk much. They are tired. Their eyes follow us from the moment we arrive at the trailer park and don\u2019t leave us until our car pulls away from our makeshift gravel parking space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone stares. We do not fit in here. On Jeff Davis Highway, south of Hull Street, we have come\u00a0to\u00a0Rudd\u2019s Trailer Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jefferson Davis corridor is characterized by a heavy industrial presence mixed with older commercial and residential real estate, including\u00a0trailer parks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_4646-1-1024x768\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Rudd\u2019s is one of the largest, and most run-down, of Richmond\u2019s nine parks. Trailers\u00a0here, which rent for about\u00a0 400 dollars a month,\u00a0are\u00a0within reach\u00a0of\u00a0low-income families. In Jeff Davis, this means\u00a0poor whites, African Americans and Latinos.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rudd\u2019s has a\u00a0large\u00a0Hispanic community, which came under\u00a0pressure\u00a0when the\u00a0City of Richmond began to crack down on housing inspections and condemnations about a year and a half ago. According to NBC12, at least 20 homes were condemned at Rudd’s,\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0occupants of 10\u00a0of them were\u00a0evicted. Many families were left homeless,\u00a0and\u00a0those who remained\u00a0lived in\u00a0fear\u00a0of\u00a0losing their homes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the first people\u00a0affected\u00a0was Kyle Wicther. A former resident of Rudd\u2019s, his trailer was one of the first flagged for violations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recalling all this, he shook his head. \u201cYou try to fix it and they still run you off, man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kyle\u2019s mother Dorothy\u00a0moved to Rudd’s\u00a0about four years ago,\u00a0to a trailer\u00a0across the street from Kyle\u2019s. When I asked why she chose Rudd\u2019s, she smiled a one-tooth smile and\u00a0gave a one-word answer:\u00a0\u201cCheap.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her beige trailer shows noticeable signs of damage. A stuffed animal,\u00a0of indeterminate\u00a0species,\u00a0adorns\u00a0a birdhouse out front.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0Although the Wichters are African-American and\u00a0downplay the\u00a0Hispanic\u00a0presence\u00a0at Rudd\u2019s, most of the\u00a0trailers we\u00a0saw\u00a0were\u00a0home to\u00a0Latinos.\u00a0And when the city cracked down, Hispanics claimed that\u00a0officials targeted\u00a0them\u00a0unfairly. Thirty-two people from mostly Latino families filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Richmond and its building officials.<\/div>\n
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According to NBC12, the\u00a0lawsuit said the\u00a0city violated civil rights laws by not providing translators to help\u00a0Rudd’s Hispanic residents\u00a0understand\u00a0long and complicated legal documents\u00a0in\u00a0English. There were\u00a0also\u00a0claims of intimidation by armed police officers, threats to condemn homes or bring criminal charges. Many undocumented families fled their residences, spooked by just hearing of the police\u2019s presence in the trailer park,\u00a0said\u00a0Father Jack Podsiadlo\u00a0of Sacred Heart Church, which serves the local Hispanic community.<\/span><\/p>\n

City officials responded by citing\u00a0hundreds of safety violations\u00a0in the trailer park. But the\u00a0plaintiffs’\u00a0lawsuit claimed that even when families fixed\u00a0the violations,\u00a0spending\u00a0thousands of dollars, homes were still condemned and families left homeless.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>

Three streets lined with trailers, some in much better shape than others, comprise Rudd’s Trailer Park.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

The discrimination lawsuit\u00a0was\u00a0settled in May 2016,\u00a0with\u00a0the city\u00a0required\u00a0to pay an additional $30,000 in damages, conduct community outreach,\u00a0reimburse\u00a0residents\u00a0for\u00a0home repairs, hire a “fair housing compliance officer” and establish a nondiscrimination policy, according to Richmond Magazine.\u00a0It is unclear whether some, or any, of these sanctions have come to fruition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The code enforcement\u00a0itself had little impact.\u00a0Over 100 mobile homes were operational\u00a0before the enforcement, but the number is around 70 today due to the mass exodus of people, said previous owner Ronnie Soffee to the Richmond Free Press.<\/span><\/p>\n

That drove rents higher,\u00a0Podsiadlo\u00a0said. The purpose of the condemnations was to gentrify the area, but it had the effect of\u00a0removing\u00a0affordable housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gentrification is part of a larger revitalization plan to breathe new life into the Jefferson Davis Corridor. (Read about revitalization efforts\u00a0here<\/b><\/a>.) Old warehouses\u00a0are being\u00a0converted to\u00a0lofts\u00a0or public housing,\u00a0with rents far beyond what trailer park residents can afford. To qualify, a renter\u00a0must\u00a0also\u00a0be a citizen of the\u00a0United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Jefferson Davis\u00a0Corridor has seen economic improvements in recent years, many of the benefits have yet to trickle down to its poorest residents. Kyle and Dorothy haven\u2019t noticed any changes in the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

The poverty rate in the area targeted for gentrification was at 22.7 percent in 2015, more than three and a half times as high as the countywide rate of 6.4 percent, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Among children under 18, that number\u00a0is\u00a0even higher at 31.2 percent. At $33,000, the median household income in this area\u00a0is less than half of that for Chesterfield as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those who live in the north side of\u00a0Richmond\u00a0have what they need there and have no reason to travel\u00a0on\u00a0Jefferson Davis Highway.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t care about the situation in the Southside because it doesn\u2019t touch their lives,”\u00a0Podsiadlo\u00a0said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t influence them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Of the people\u00a0sitting\u00a0outside on\u00a0a\u00a0nice\u00a0spring\u00a0day, few are actually residents of Rudd\u2019s. One man, a former resident with a Southern accent\u00a0so thick that I couldn’t fully understand him,\u00a0grew visibly red\u00a0as he\u00a0began to shout about how the owners never did anything to help them.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Behind him sat a middle-aged Hispanic man on an upside-down black crate\u00a0(right). Cruz S., an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, had lived in Rudd\u2019s for 15 years and worked maintenance for the\u00a0trailer\u00a0park for six years. He spoke so gently, in Spanish,\u00a0that we had to sit on the pavement next to him to hear.<\/span><\/p>\n

When\u00a0Rudd\u2019s was sold at auction in March\u00a0(for $371,000, a fraction of the land’s assessed value of\u00a0$2.46 million), the new owner hired another\u00a0morenito,\u00a0little tan person,\u00a0to take Cruz\u2019s job.\u00a0Without a job, Cruz\u00a0lost his trailer. Now, he takes odd jobs in construction,\u00a0but without a car\u00a0it’s hard for him\u00a0to travel to Norfolk where\u00a0most\u00a0construction jobs are.\u00a0There is no homeless shelter in Chesterfield County.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another complication is that the\u00a0government\u00a0is now denying\u00a0work permits to\u00a0undocumented immigrants. \u201cHe won\u2019t even give us a chance,\u201d Cruz said of\u00a0U.S. President\u00a0Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cruz is alone in his adopted country.\u00a0The rest of\u00a0his\u00a0family moved back to Mexico between five and eight years ago, minus a son who died in New Jersey. He\u00a0was welcomed by\u00a0the Hispanic community\u00a0at\u00a0Rudd\u2019s, but many\u00a0of his friends\u00a0were now moving away because they were scared of inspection\u00a0and deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we asked about his future, Cruz looked up from wringing his strong, callused hands and gave a sad smile.\u00a0Quien sabe?\u00a0he said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWho knows?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brooke Warner On\u00a0most\u00a0sunny days, Dorothy\u00a0Wicther\u00a0and\u00a0her son\u00a0Kyle can be found sitting in old lawn chairs outside\u00a0Dorothy’s\u00a0trailer. They don\u2019t talk much. They are tired. Their eyes follow us from the moment we arrive at the trailer park and don\u2019t leave us until our car pulls away from our makeshift gravel parking space. Everyone stares. We do Read more about Trailer Park Trials<\/span>[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2637,"featured_media":1182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53786],"tags":[224,86,53804],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeff-davis-corridor","tag-housing","tag-immigration","tag-trailer-park"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/files\/2017\/04\/Cruz.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7o53H-iU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2637"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/walkingrichmond\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}