Macon, GA
Billy Meador first noticed something was wrong a few weeks after he moved into his mobile home in North Park Manor this past March.
The grass was getting high, his sewage tank had started to spill over and an exposed wire nearly electrocuted the technicians who came to install his cable, Meador said.
Meador, 38, complained to the property management, but nothing happened.
“You can’t get in touch with nobody,” he said. “It’s a pain in the butt.”
The national real estate investment group Hartman Wright lists North Park Manor under the “Current Holdings” page on its website. When Meador moved to the mobile home park five months ago, Hartman Wright’s in-house management company, Southern Portfolio Management, maintained the property.
The contact phone numbers listed online for both Hartman Wright and Southern Portfolio Management, are no longer in service. Hartman Wright did not respond to an email request for comment.
At the end of March, North Park Manor changed management, according to a letter provided to The Telegraph. The new management company, Hometown Parks, oversees dozens of mobile home parks throughout the South. Since the change in hands, Meador said it’s become just about impossible to get any maintenance issues resolved.
Meador pays $550 a month for the trailer he lives in with his godmother, her son, two friends, two cats and three dogs. His rent is $480, and the other $70 covers water, sewage, trash pickup and grounds keeping. But Meador said the park has been neglected for weeks.
“It was in the contract that says that the only thing we are supposed to worry about is, like, if we’ve got a garden or something to maintain that,” Meador said. “But they’re supposed to provide lawn service. They’re supposed to maintain your place. They’re supposed to do something about the trash.”
On Wednesday, mounds of trash spilled from the dumpsters near the entrance to North Park Manor just off of Hawkinsville Road. Tall grass sprouted from the ground, towering to nearly two feet in some areas. A few days ago, the grass got so high that the mailman threatened to stop delivering mail, Meador said. A neighbor cleared a path by the mailboxes himself.
Meador filed a formal complaint with the health department earlier this week, and the record reflects that the issue is still under investigation. John Baker, building abatement manager at the county Department of Business and Development Services, said his office has received complaints about the mobile home park in recent months.
Three residents, including Meador, have posted concerns on the park’s Facebook group since April. Resident Kristal Wilder told The Telegraph in a Facebook message that she had been served an eviction notice over the weekend but couldn’t even get in touch with the landlord to find out when she would have to leave.
Joe Edge, a broker for the Augusta-based real estate company that oversees Hometown Parks, Sherman and Hemstreet, acknowledged residents of North Park Manor have lodged multiple complaints. Edge attributed the poor maintenance of the park to “financial issues” but said the property managers had paid the bills recently, and the issues had already been resolved.
The scene on Wednesday reflected otherwise.
In the thick afternoon heat, maintenance worker Glenn Fincher mowed a square of grass next to one of the mobile units near the park’s entrance. Normally, Fincher said, lawn upkeep isn’t part of his job description.
“I do everything but cut the grass,” he said.
But Fincher said the group that used to mow the lawns stopped coming when the property changed management.
“You can’t just get a grass company because they don’t like cutting parks like here because they’ve got all kinds of stuff sticking up in ‘em. And, you know, they carry their equipment up close,” Fincher said. “Basically, you’ve got to find an individual to mow the grass.”
Fincher is the only on-site employee who can help residents with maintenance issues, and he acknowledged it can take some time for issues to be resolved. Before starting a project, Fincher said he has to get permission from his supervisor at the property management company, which can delay progress. But he expected conditions at the park to improve soon.
“It’s being addressed,” he said. “It just ain’t got addressed yet.”
Meador’s not feeling as optimistic. Since conditions started to deteriorate at North Park Manor, he said residents have begun to move away. If Meador had the money, he said he’d move out, too. But another relocation is not an option right now.
For the time being, Meador and his roommates will have to wait and hope things get better.
“This is our community,” Meador said. “I mean, imagine them living in this, the corporate people. Would they want to live like this? I think not.”
Samantha Max is a Report for America corps member and reports for The Telegraph with support from the News/CoLab at Arizona State University. Follow her on Facebook at facebook.com/samantha.max.9 and on Twitter @samanthaellimax. Learn more about Report for America at www.reportforamerica.org.
This story was originally published August 20, 2018 12:00 AM.