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Trailer park
A trailer park, caravan park, mobile home park, mobile home community or manufactured home community is a temporary or permanent area for mobile homes and travel trailers. Advantages include low cost compared to other housing, and quick and easy moving to a new area (for example, when taking a job in a distant place while keeping the same home).
Trailer parks, especially in American culture, are stereotypically viewed as lower income housing for occupants living at or below the poverty line who have low social status. Despite the advances in trailer home technology, the trailer park image survives as evoked by a statement from Presidential adviser James Carville who, in the course of one of the Bill Clinton White House political scandals, suggested: "Drag $100 bills through trailer parks, there's no telling what you'll find," in reference to Paula Jones.
Tornadoes and hurricanes often inflict serious damage on trailer parks, usually because the structures are not secured to the ground and their construction much less robust in high winds than regular houses. However, most modern manufactured homes are built to withstand high winds, using hurricane straps and proper foundations.
The negative perception of trailer parks was not improved by the creation of emergency trailer parks by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina, the quality and temporary nature of which was disputed.
Many stereotypes have developed about residents in trailer parks, which are similar to stereotypes of the poor. The term trailer trash is often used in the same vein as the derogatory American terms white trash and ghetto. Though trailer parks appear throughout the United States, they are often associated with the Deep South and rural areas. In Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, the Town Select Board debated the implementation of a moratorium preventing mobile or manufactured homes from being built or installed. Trailer parks became viewed as a valuable asset in the late 2010s. During that decade, REITs, private equity funds, and middle-class people looking to escape the corporate world bought them up from small mom-and-pop owners.
More recently referred to in the U.S. as "mobile home parks" or "manufactured housing communities", the stereotypes are often just that. Retirement communities exist in many locales that permit mobile home parks as "55+ parks" in keeping with the Housing for Older Persons Act (HOPA). Generally, at least one homeowner in these communities must be age 55 or over, and those under age 18 are rarely permitted to live there. These can be gated communities with amenities, such as swimming pools, clubhouses and onsite maintenance. Homes are often permanently installed on foundations. But residents may not own the land their homes occupy.
Mobile home parks in the U.S. have become an attractive investment for financial firms such as Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital. In the early 2020s, an individual mobile home park can be sold in the tens of millions of dollars. Over 100,000 US mobile home sites were estimated to be owned by large firms in 2019. One firm, Stockbridge Capital Group, owner of about 200 mobile-home parks throughout the US, "saw a return on investment of more than 30 percent between late 2016 and the end of 2017." The company's expansion into this market was facilitated by $1.3 billion in financing from Fannie Mae, which has called mobile homes "inherently affordable." Profitability for the firms owning the parks has in some cases been tied to rent increases, and has not necessarily translated into good maintenance of the mobile homes. Efforts are being mounted to allow trailer park residents a chance to buy their own trailer park and thus own the land they live on; for instance, in Colorado, trailer park owners must give residents 90 days' notice before selling. In San Antonio, Texas, residents of the Mission Trails Mobile Home Community negotiated with developer White-Conlee who would be contracted to build luxury condominiums.
While the majority of trailer parks are used as permanent residences, and are paid for in the usual way by residents, a minority are used by nomadic people who in some cases may be occupying them illegally.
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Trailer park AI simulator
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Trailer park
A trailer park, caravan park, mobile home park, mobile home community or manufactured home community is a temporary or permanent area for mobile homes and travel trailers. Advantages include low cost compared to other housing, and quick and easy moving to a new area (for example, when taking a job in a distant place while keeping the same home).
Trailer parks, especially in American culture, are stereotypically viewed as lower income housing for occupants living at or below the poverty line who have low social status. Despite the advances in trailer home technology, the trailer park image survives as evoked by a statement from Presidential adviser James Carville who, in the course of one of the Bill Clinton White House political scandals, suggested: "Drag $100 bills through trailer parks, there's no telling what you'll find," in reference to Paula Jones.
Tornadoes and hurricanes often inflict serious damage on trailer parks, usually because the structures are not secured to the ground and their construction much less robust in high winds than regular houses. However, most modern manufactured homes are built to withstand high winds, using hurricane straps and proper foundations.
The negative perception of trailer parks was not improved by the creation of emergency trailer parks by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina, the quality and temporary nature of which was disputed.
Many stereotypes have developed about residents in trailer parks, which are similar to stereotypes of the poor. The term trailer trash is often used in the same vein as the derogatory American terms white trash and ghetto. Though trailer parks appear throughout the United States, they are often associated with the Deep South and rural areas. In Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, the Town Select Board debated the implementation of a moratorium preventing mobile or manufactured homes from being built or installed. Trailer parks became viewed as a valuable asset in the late 2010s. During that decade, REITs, private equity funds, and middle-class people looking to escape the corporate world bought them up from small mom-and-pop owners.
More recently referred to in the U.S. as "mobile home parks" or "manufactured housing communities", the stereotypes are often just that. Retirement communities exist in many locales that permit mobile home parks as "55+ parks" in keeping with the Housing for Older Persons Act (HOPA). Generally, at least one homeowner in these communities must be age 55 or over, and those under age 18 are rarely permitted to live there. These can be gated communities with amenities, such as swimming pools, clubhouses and onsite maintenance. Homes are often permanently installed on foundations. But residents may not own the land their homes occupy.
Mobile home parks in the U.S. have become an attractive investment for financial firms such as Carlyle Group, Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital. In the early 2020s, an individual mobile home park can be sold in the tens of millions of dollars. Over 100,000 US mobile home sites were estimated to be owned by large firms in 2019. One firm, Stockbridge Capital Group, owner of about 200 mobile-home parks throughout the US, "saw a return on investment of more than 30 percent between late 2016 and the end of 2017." The company's expansion into this market was facilitated by $1.3 billion in financing from Fannie Mae, which has called mobile homes "inherently affordable." Profitability for the firms owning the parks has in some cases been tied to rent increases, and has not necessarily translated into good maintenance of the mobile homes. Efforts are being mounted to allow trailer park residents a chance to buy their own trailer park and thus own the land they live on; for instance, in Colorado, trailer park owners must give residents 90 days' notice before selling. In San Antonio, Texas, residents of the Mission Trails Mobile Home Community negotiated with developer White-Conlee who would be contracted to build luxury condominiums.
While the majority of trailer parks are used as permanent residences, and are paid for in the usual way by residents, a minority are used by nomadic people who in some cases may be occupying them illegally.