Trailer park
A trailer park, caravan park, mobile home park, mobile home community or manufactured home community is a temporary or permanent area for
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.[1][2][3][4] 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.[5]
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.[6][7] However, most modern manufactured homes are built to withstand high winds, using hurricane straps and proper foundations.[8]
By country
In the United States
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.[9]
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.[10][11] 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.[12] 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.[13]
More recently referred to in the U.S. as "mobile home parks" or "
Corporate investment
Mobile home parks in the U.S. have become an attractive investment for financial firms such as
Outside the United States
Disputed trailer parks
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.
In Britain and Ireland, the term
Either rejected from or refusing to seek entrance in municipally authorised halting sites, groups of families practising a nomadic lifestyle would establish themselves under the cover of darkness on idle land near urban centers. These unauthorised encampments were often resented by local people, perpetuating a cycle of violence, fear and discrimination. The use of land without the necessary permission also carried the threat of imprisonment for the squatting families, further worsening the socio-economic disadvantage experienced by these minorities.[19]
Authorised caravan parks
This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2021) |
In Germany, the Netherlands and some other European countries, local law allows for normal camping at RV parks for a short time and seasonal camping for holidaymakers, and also long-time camping (for years) with hardly movable travel trailers. Sometimes these inhabitants also cultivate a garden. Some cities allow a long-time camping lot to be the regular address registered with the authorities; others do not. Many of mobile home plots are offered by RV parks that allow for all sorts of camping and offer extra plots for mobile homes (static caravans).The cost for such a plot tends to be between €400 and €1.500 a year, depending on the location and facilities.
In France, living in a trailer or mobile home for more than three months is prohibited by law, even if the resident owns the land; however, building requirements and permissions for self building of recreational solid (static) country cottages are more relaxed in France if one stays within a certain amount of square meters.[citation needed]
In the United Kingdom, "trailers" are commonly known as static caravans, and are generally used for one of two purposes: firstly as holiday homes, designed for short-term living; and secondly as retirement homes for the elderly, designed for long-term occupancy. Both types of trailers usually enjoy good amenities and are surrounded by highly manicured gardens.[citation needed]
In Australia, there is generally no differentiation between a trailer park and an RV park. The term "caravan park" is used to refer to both.
See also
- Favela
- Ghetto
- Halting site
- Public housing
- Gecekondu
- RV park
- Shanty town
- Slum
- Trailer Park Boys
- Trailer trash, a derogatory term for white people who live in trailer parks
- Reefer container housing units
References
- ^ Gray, Nolan (August 12, 2016). "Reclaiming "Redneck" Urbanism: What Urban Planners can Learn from Trailer Parks". Strong Towns. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ a b Neate, Rupert (May 3, 2015). "America's trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich". The Guardian. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ a b c Foroohar, Rana (February 7, 2020). "Why big investors are buying up American trailer parks". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ Kirk, Mimi (October 25, 2017). "How Mobile Homes Hinder the American Dream". Bloomberg News. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ Cohen, Adam (January 20, 1997). "WILL SHE HAVE HER DAY IN COURT ?". Time. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ Madan, Monique O. (September 10, 2017). "Hurricane Irma rips roofs from mobile homes". Miami Herald. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ Paquette, Danielle (September 12, 2017). "Florida has 828,000 mobile homes. Less than a third were built to survive a hurricane". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ Treaster, Joseph B.; Fountain, Henry (September 14, 2017). "Considered Vulnerable, Mobile Homes Are Battered but Largely Intact". The New York Times. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ Dewan, Shaila (July 12, 2007). "Road to New Life After Katrina Is Closed to Many". The New York Times. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-7425-2713-3. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
- ^ Aaron, Nina Renata (March 13, 2018). "Downwardly mobile: how trailer living became an inescapable marker of class". Timeline. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ "Municipal Building Meeting Room Minutes" (PDF). Select Board. Town of Dover-Foxcroft. April 11, 2012.
- ^ "Particle or Wave: On Esther Sullivan's "Manufactured Insecurity"". Cleveland Review of Books. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
- ^ Washington Post. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
- ^ Reager, Catherine (2020-06-02). "Big investor Carlyle pays $230M for four older Mesa mobile home parks". The Arizona Republic.
- ^ Waddell, Benjamin (March 21, 2022). "Trailer Park Residents Hope to Buy the Land Beneath Them". Four Points Press. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
- ^ Gerlach, Jeremy T. (Feb 4, 2015). "Last families moving out of Mission Reach trailer park". San Antonio Express-News.
- ISBN 978-0-4151-4920-4. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
- ^ O’Faolain, Aodhan (October 3, 2019). "Traveller couples given 24 hours to move away from vicinity of illegal halting site". Irish Examiner. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
Further reading
- Sullivan, Esther (2017). "Moving Out: Mapping Mobile Home Park Closures to Analyze Spatial Patterns of Low-Income Residential Displacement". City & Community. 16 (3). Wiley: 304–329. S2CID 149041225.
- Why do so many Americans live in mobile homes? by the BBC News Magazine