Lakewood is located in Northeastern Davidson Co across Old Hickory Lake from Hendersonville. (Yes, not ALL of Davidson Co is Nashville City Limits) Locally, the city is known for its strict police force and 1950s suburban homes.
Trailer park evictions may leave residents in the cold
By BRAD SCHRADE
Staff Writer
Decision aids Lakewood's effort to get rid of homes
The old white mobile home with faded black shutters isn't much, but Ina K. Deering thought it was a place where she could die in peace.
The 44-year-old woman has drifted for much of her adult life. So when an opportunity arose last year to buy the single-wide at 108 Pitts Ave., Lot 4 in Lakewood, Deering scraped together $1,800 from her back-payment disability checks and bought her first home.
''A $20 million mansion wouldn't have made me any happier when I got this money to buy this little place,'' Deering said. ''It was finally a place of mine so nobody could tell me to get out � I thought my ship hadn't come in, but at least it was a rowboat.''
Her happy residency was disturbed, however, when Odell Binkley Jr., the man who owns the land on which Deering and her neighbors' trailers sit, ordered that the 18 or so mobile home residences be removed by Feb. 1. In an eviction letter dated Nov. 4, Binkley blamed Lakewood city government and its ''present attitude'' for putting him in a ''very deep hole'' with no way out but to have everyone leave the mobile home park.
The tiny town near Old Hickory passed an ordinance last April beginning to rid itself of mobile homes over the next five years. City Manager R.C. White said Lakewood may pass a second ordinance to round out the plan.
Binkley had hoped to expand the park from about 20 lots to 40 when he bought the property February. He said 40 trailer spots made sense financially.
But that plan quickly encountered problems, he said, when the city wouldn't sign off on it and began citing him with codes violations. It didn't help that the trailer park is next to city hall and easily visible across the lawn.
There were so many codes violations � approximately 115 � that Binkley eventually struck a deal with White. He agreed to have the 5-acre mobile home park shut down by Feb. 1 and decided to pursue plans to have the land rezoned for commercial use.
The decision came down to simple business, he said, as it made no sense to fight city hall and make officials mad at him.
''That hasn't really torn me up,'' Binkley said of his decision. ''I don't want to fight city hall over it. My thought was, it would be in my best interest to give the tenants ample notice.''
Binkley gave residents three months notice in November � a time of year in which family budgets often are pinched and the $1,300 cost of relocating a mobile home was tough to come by for some on fixed incomes.
Deering's left leg is amputated above the knee. The amputation stems from a rare cancer and her doctors say she may not live another year, she said. She spends most of her days in bed, too weak to move around except for her monthly visit to the doctor. She fears she will end up back on the streets, homeless, unless she can find a lot to place her mobile home.
''This just slams the door back in my face. ... As bad as my circulation is, I wouldn't survive a week no matter how many blankets I had wrapped around me,'' she added.
Other residents, such as Charlie Ward Sr., are seniors on fixed incomes. He is 94 and has lived with his wife, Gladys, 86, in the mobile home park for about 12 years. They have been paying the $250-a-month rent for the lot from their $1,300-a-month Social Security stipend.
Ward's wife gets around with a walker. Both are nervous about their move and what the future holds. Their 71-year-old son lives in the trailer next door. The family is planning to move the two mobile homes to a trailer park in nearby Old Hickory.
''I try not to get upset, but I've got to move,'' Ward said. ''I've been here a good while.''
Asked how he's going to pay for the move, he said, ''When you're 94, you just listen. I'm letting the kids figure it out. I can't finance it.''
White said the city's new policy on mobile homes was an effort to ''clean up'' Lakewood. The city has about 50 mobile homes, he said, and areas such as Binkley's park have been crime magnets.
The cleanup coincides with plans in Lakewood to attract new retail establishments and higher-priced homes, some possibly in the $1 million range, White said.
As for Binkley's park, it was his decision to either fix the codes problems or close it, White said.
''As far as the residents, that hurts me that they're going to have to move,'' White said. ''But you also can't allow them to live in a place that's not up to codes. It's not the city that's doing it. We don't have anything against the residents that live there. They are just as important as a person that lives in a million-dollar house. It's the codes violations.''
State law does little to help people who live in mobile homes, said Drake Holliday with the Legal Aid Society. They have no more rights under the law than someone in an apartment, he said, yet the cost of their move is much greater and the logistics more complicated.
Holliday said landlords could evict tenants such as Deering and Ward, who don't have leases, by giving a 30-day notice.
''Moving a mobile home is an enormous undertaking and costly. The going rate is about $2,000,'' Holliday said. ''To expect working folks to be able to cough up that on short notice is pretty harsh.''
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