Mobile home owners do not own the land beneath their trailers. But many residents of the Lakewood Mobile Home Park and other trailer parks within the Chapel Hill town limits are more deeply rooted to the land on which they live than the town’s more transient and upwardly mobile residents. Their homes are not as mobile as those of many of the students and young professionals who pack up their households regularly and move on. Many are immigrants who have created communities and have become active contributors to schools, churches, sports clubs, the arts, and the economy in the last few decades. And all that is about to change, since the town’s trailer parks are falling one by one into the hands of developers.

In early 2018 at a town hall meeting on a proposed luxury condo complex at 1000 Weaver Dairy Road in north Chapel Hill, Lakeview residents shared what their impending eviction means to them. Most talked about a devastating disruption of the lives they have built, since they see no other affordable option for their families in the area. They have been priced out.

All of the kids that live in Lakeview attend local schools; their parents take the city busses to their jobs around Chapel Hill. They share their trailers with grandparents and, often, a few pets. And when these kids spoke at the town hall meeting, the audience was listening very closely. For many, including those threatened not only with eviction but also with deportation, Lakeview is the only home they’ve ever known.

Inspired by these young voices, I recently walked through Lakeview, which is set back from the road sheltered by hundreds of tall trees and greenery. I was looking for signs of home. Needless to say, the evidence was overwhelming.