As housing prices rise across Oglethorpe County, mobile homes remain one of the last affordable options — but even that refuge is becoming harder to maintain
An orderly cluster of mobile homes sits on Wheeler Circle, just off of Highway 78. It’s a quiet, safe neighborhood, housing families and locals at an affordable rate.
“I've got good, hard-working folks,” said Boyd Smith, manager of Crawford Mobile Home Community. “They just get up, they go to work, they do their job. It’s pretty quiet. They’re raising their families. They want the same thing everybody else wants. They want a nice life for their kids.”
Smith bought the plot and its 25 manufactured homes in 2010, in hopes of responding to the Great Recession, which lasted from December 2007 until June 2009. According to Georgia Watch, in 2009 alone, almost 90,000 homes were foreclosed on in Georgia. The state currently ranks seventh in the nation for foreclosures.
“We were coming out of the housing crash, and there were foreclosures,” Smith said. “This was a foreclosure, and it was a mess. I’m a home builder — I’ve been building homes for 40 years — so I knew I could take it and turn it into something nice and have a pretty decent income from it.”
In Oglethorpe County, mobile and manufactured homes are more than just a place for people to lay their heads at night, they’re a lifeline.
Approximately 11% of Oglethorpe County residents who experienced some sort of housing crisis attributed unaffordable prices as the root of their struggles, according to the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute’s County Health Rankings and Roadmaps.
Average rent at Crawford Mobile Home Community started off at $300 a month. Since then, Smith and his partners have brought in 10 factory-new mobile homes and remodeled older ones.
“All the homes that are in here have been totally renovated,” Smith said. (The old homes were) gutted. New windows, systems and everything.”
However, housing costs have increased, leading to an uptick in taxes, ultimately forcing higher rental prices. With the renovated homes and the increase in housing costs, the average rent is $1,000 a month.
Crawford Mobile Home Community’s most recent rent increase was on Oct. 1, resulting in affordability concerns for some residents.
“(The increase) was like $50, but $50 is a lot in certain families,” Smith said. “I don’t know where they’d go from here, because I just don’t know a whole lot of other options at this price point.”
Back in the 1980s, Oglethorpe County saw a massive boom in mobile home living with a 131.8% increase. The next decade, the county’s housing market saw an additional 39% influx in mobile homes.
Prior to the Great Recession, Oglethorpe County had 1,772 occupied mobile or manufactured homes, which made up 33% of all total homes within the county in 2000.
When Smith purchased the mobile home park, he brought in several RVs to fill the empty space and bring in new tenants. However, Smith quickly learned he was going to have to take a different approach.
“I set them up, and almost within two weeks, they (the county) came and said, ‘Oh, no, you can’t do that,’” he said. “I said, ‘Well, this is exactly what you wanted, affordable housing, and I'm bringing it in.’ They said, ‘Yeah, but those aren't meant to be lived in.’”
What’s a home?
Oglethorpe County requires homes to fall into one of the three categories.
According to the Oglethorpe County Manufactured Housing Ordinances, “Class A” manufactured homes are defined as factory-built dwellings that meet federal safety requirements defined with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Code.
“Class B” manufactured homes, or mobile homes, must also be factory-built and meet HUD standards, but since they don’t meet traditional Oglethorpe County standards, they are only allowed in agricultural zones or in approved mobile home parks, also known as R-3 districts.
The ordinances also note it’s illegal to permanently reside in an RV or camper in Oglethorpe County, as these residents don’t pay property taxes.
Despite the county’s guidelines, Jeff Sharp, the county’s director of planning, zoning and compliance, said there are still a number of residents living in RVs.
“This county is so big and very rural; it’s not that hard to hide,” he said.
Rather than giving fines to residents living in RVs, Sharp said he’s generally taken a different approach.
“What we try to do now is stop them when they first start, before they get entrenched,” he said. “Once they get entrenched, it’s a little more difficult.”
However, after an Oglethorpe County Zoning Board decision last Thursday, that process might change.
The zoning board approved revisions to the recreational vehicle ordinance at its October meeting, and under the new rules, living in travel trailers and RVs beyond 90 days would be considered permanent and therefore not be allowed.
Previously, there was a loophole in the ordinance that had created challenges, Sharp said. The rule was about consecutive days, and sometimes residents would move out for a day, ultimately resetting their time.
The ordinance revisions will go to the Board of Commissioners on Nov. 3 for final approval.