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Photo by Tina Eshleman
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One of at least 40 condemned mobile homes at Rudd’s Trailer Park (Photo by Tina Eshleman)
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Photo by Tina Eshleman
At Rudd’s Trailer Park off Jefferson Davis Highway, dozens of condemned mobile homes stand vacant, with boarded-up or broken windows. Fire gutted some; others have been raided by vandals. If there’s any progress since last year’s settlements resulting from a federal lawsuit and civil rights complaint, it’s not evident yet.
Code enforcement by the city of Richmond led to the condemnations and the settlements to 33 current and former residents of Rudd’s and Mobile Towne, most of whom are Hispanic.
Dennis Pasqualino, who bought the park at auction in March, said his first priority was addressing crime. “Now our goal is to start taking the condemned trailers out.” He is working with the city and nonprofit groups to bring in new trailers and residents.
In response to the crisis at Rudd’s, a network of nonprofit and community groups formed the Virginia Mobile Home Park Coalition to assess parks throughout the region and consider ways to improve them.
“With the proper combination of good policy and practical supports,” says Christie Marra of the Virginia Poverty Law Center, “there’s great potential for manufactured home communities to be a valuable part of the affordable housing spectrum.”
