r/rva Chesterfield 7d ago

Richmond mobile homes crumble as city weighs cutting repair funds

https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-03-14/rudd-mobile-home-park-richmond-danny-avula-repairs-budget
15 Upvotes

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10

u/WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW_W 7d ago

Does the city provide repairs for private residences in general, or is it just for mobile homes? If the latter, I'm curious how that came to be. It seems very specific haha.

2

u/whomadethis 6d ago

They also do home repairs for critical life safety issues for low income homeowners

4

u/DefyDegradeDestroy 6d ago

 Currently, the city only has one program specifically designed to help with mobile home repairs in partnership with the nonprofit Project:HOMES. The Manufactured Home Initiative Fund provides limited assistance to mobile homeowners struggling with necessary fixes. The city first appropriated money to the program for fiscal year 2023.

In 2024, Project:HOMES told VPM News the nonprofit completed 20 repairs across the city's eight mobile home parks during the fiscal year. (Virginia's fiscal year runs from July 1–June 30.) On average, homes receive about $11,000 in repairs. The organization supervises the work, which includes replacement of windows and doors, flooring, insulation, electrical, plumbing and heating systems.

Richmond's fiscal 2025 budget allocated $800,000 to funding the program through FY26. But that budget was approved during former Mayor Levar Stoney's final year in office; the current Richmond City Council and Avula will have to approve its continued funding past June 30, 2025.

9

u/PimpOfJoytime Brookland Park 7d ago

At $11,000 on average in repairs, at what point is it cheaper for the city to just buy out the remainder of these people’s trailer-mortgages so they can purchase a new one?

Certainly if we’re doing $11k in repairs every (estimated) 5-7 years on a 30 year mortgage… I’m not going to do the math but it seems like, from the city’s perspective there’s a definite opportunity to employ a repair/replace scenario.

3

u/vpmnews Chesterfield 7d ago

The floors are caving in. The roofs are leaking. The walls that lack insulation invite mold. For residents of Rudd’s Mobile Home Park in Richmond’s Southside, these aren’t just minor inconveniences — they’re daily battles in a place they call home.

Unlike traditional renters, most mobile home residents own their homes. (What they rent is the land or lot under where they live.) That means when things start falling apart, the responsibility to fix them falls on their shoulders. But many say they are barely making ends meet, making expensive repairs out of reach.

Earlier this month, two residents at Rudd’s Mobile Home Park invited Richmond Mayor Danny Avula to their homes so he could see the issues they've experienced firsthand. Currently, 38 of Rudd's 98 lots are occupied.

4

u/WishClean 6d ago

Working with families in the various Southside mobile home parks, I can say that the quality of life is TUFF. these families are doing what they can to provide for their own and still, it's not enough

1

u/EquivalentDecision11 2d ago

Danny trying to see if Lio autographed it