With a Deadline to Move Looming, Most Chatham Estates Residents Are Still In Limbo

Just a few days after Christmas, Abigael Dawah opened her mailbox to find a letter. It was less than a page long, but it upended her entire life, along with the lives of her roughly 700 neighbors. 

“We are hereby providing formal notice to all residents of Chatham Estates that their mobile home and all personal property must be removed before June 30th, 2026,” the letter, from the property’s owner, read. “For relocation assistance, please see the attached flyer.”  

Dawah knew this had been coming ever since the owner announced he was putting the property—home to some 144 mobile homes—up for sale in 2023. “But after two years, we kind of got used to it, and felt like maybe, just maybe, it’s not gonna sell, or it’s gonna take longer,” she told the INDY.

Each month during those two years, Dawah visited the office to pay rent and ask if there was any news. Usually, there wasn’t, and she’d go back home with a sense of security, at least for the next few weeks. Then, in December, the owner’s wife told her the property was finally being sold. 

“It was like a bucket of cold water,” Dawah said. “I was so shocked that I don’t even remember what she was saying after that. I was just like, ‘Oh my God, it’s finally happening. What am I gonna do?’”

Once she got the letter, the clock started ticking, counting down to the day she had to be out.

Today, with less than two months to go until the move-out deadline, two-thirds of residents have not yet relocated, and some feel just as lost as ever. Come June, the property is expected to be sold to developers who have submitted plans to build more than 400 new apartments and townhomes on the site, located near booming downtown Cary. 

“What people don’t understand is that these are our lives,” said neighborhood leader Angelica Gonzalez, through a translator, at an emergency meeting in early February. “Ever since I got here about 26 years ago, that’s all I’ve ever known. And not only that, but we have a lot of memories in our home. I was pregnant in that home. My father passed away in that home.”

In the years since Chatham Estates was created in the late 1990s, Cary has gone from a sleepy suburb to a bustling town. In 1997, the property was valued at around $2 million, adjusting for inflation. Today, just a few minutes from downtown Cary and across the street from a new “live-work-play” development, the property is worth nearly $27 million, according to the Wake County Tax Administration. 

Chatham Estates is one of the last truly affordable neighborhoods in Cary. The majority of its 700-plus residents identify as Hispanic or Latino and working class. Some live paycheck to paycheck or work two or even three jobs so they can support their children or send money to their families in South America. Some own businesses in the strip mall just outside the park or work at nearby Wake County schools and hospitals. Others are seniors on fixed incomes.

When Cary officials learned 144 families were at risk of displacement, they created the StableHomes Cary program, which (among other things) helps people relocate by giving them money for security deposits, first month’s rent, down payments, homebuying fees, and moving expenses.

The town put $800,000 into the fund and chose nonprofit NeighborUp to spearhead the relocation effort. In January, NeighborUp hosted a workshop to help people apply and got 124 applications (the nonprofit has gotten one or two additional applications since).

Ande Curry, senior director of community services for NeighborUp, told the INDY that while the nonprofit has a lot of experience helping people relocate, “we have never done it at this large of a scale.”

“Our team is well equipped, well educated, and has been preparing for this for a long time. It is still very difficult work,” Curry said in a February interview, adding that she knows Chatham Estates families are under an extreme level of stress. “We are doing our best to assist the families as best we can, to help alleviate what we can.” 

About 50 families had moved out of Chatham Estates as of April 30, according to NeighborUp. And that number is constantly growing as more residents secure apartments, close on homes, or move their mobile homes, Shelley Hobbs, vice president of communication and strategy, told the INDY. Several seniors are set to move into Rose Park Manor, an affordable housing development in Cary. 

NeighborUp says its staff continue to work with nearly all the families in the park to finalize relocation plans. But according to Katia Roebuck, an advocate for Chatham Estates residents and coordinator for the N.C. Congress of Latino Organizations, many families throughout the community still need guidance when it comes to getting financial aid from StableHomes Cary and moving—processes that are already complicated enough without a language barrier. 

While progress is being made, there are significant challenges facing the 90 or so families who have yet to move or apply for help. And the problems they’re dealing with—mistrust of systems in a country where immigrants are particularly vulnerable, a need for comprehensive and ongoing support, and a dearth of affordable housing—aren’t easily solved. 

“We find ourselves in a very difficult situation,” Emilia Robledo said through a translator at a March press conference, called to rally donations from the community and developers. “We keep going on with our lives—continuing to work, taking the children to school, doing the shopping, going to church—but we also carry the added pressure of finding a new place to live.”

NeighborUp expects to use every last cent of the $800,000 allocated to the StableHomes Cary fund. Still, Chatham Estates residents are likely to need more money than is available. 

Many residents have poured tens of thousands of dollars into renovating their mobile homes, so they’d like to move them to another park. But moving a single trailer costs around $15,000 to $25,000—and in some cases, the age of the trailer makes moving it impossible. 

One couple, Araseni and Elder Ramirez Velazquez, made extensive renovations to their mobile home, including beautiful new vinyl flooring and countertops. Their trailer is movable, but they don’t have the title, so it’s difficult to get the moving permit they need from the county—even though they’ve been paying rent and taxes for the last eight years.

A few other residents have similar stories: They bought a used mobile home in an informal transaction, or they rent from a different owner. While the Velazquezes may be able to get help moving into an apartment, that means abandoning their longtime home and losing any equity they have in it.

“It’s very painful to just leave it like this,” Araseni Velazquez told the INDY, through a translator. 

Even with the right paperwork, moving a mobile home is a difficult option, requiring “an extensive amount of administrative legwork,” including navigating county permits and repairs, Curry said in February. NeighborUp is helping with that work “as they are able,” she added.

Other residents are looking to buy new mobile homes, but those don’t come cheap either. One woman, Eva, who asked to only be identified by her first name, moved to Chatham Estates from an apartment in Durham three years ago, after her next-door neighbors were robbed. She was looking for a safe place to raise her kids—she now has three, ranging in age from 6 months to 7 years old. 

Sitting at a tiny linoleum table, Eva told me in February that she wanted to find a home near her daughter’s school so her child didn’t have to transfer. But everything in the area is so expensive: more than double what she pays for the trailer. 

As of 2024, Cary’s median rent was $1,800 per month, according to the U.S. Census Bureau—about four and a half times what many Chatham Estates families are currently paying. For Cary homeowners with a mortgage, the median monthly cost was around $2,400. 

“There’s this entire band of families, especially working families, who don’t earn what I would consider enough money to manage the cost of living in this area, particularly housing,” said Cary Town Councilmember Carissa Kohn-Johnson. “And yet, there’s limitations to how far the [StableHomes] funding can stretch to include those families. That’s where my biggest worry is right now.”

Kohn-Johnson and Town Councilmember Michelle Craig each said they ran for office because of the affordable housing crisis. Craig, a teacher, represents District B, which includes Chatham Estates and is the lowest-income area of Cary, with residents earning an average of $40,000 per year, she said. 

Historically, it’s also been the most affordable area of Cary, but that’s changing as more development comes to town.

“I’ve seen my students and their families be displaced from Cary year after year because it’s not affordable anymore,” Craig said. “We’re seeing a lot of smaller homes downtown being torn down, and larger homes being built.” 

NeighborUp distributed lists of affordable housing options and assigned each family a case worker to help them through the process, but it’s still a daunting challenge. 

A few of the most affordable housing developments (which have income limits) are already full, with waiting lists. Others have apartments available, but prices range from $1,000 to $1,500 per month, which is out of reach for some residents, including Eva, she said. 

When I asked her about the possibility of moving her trailer, she just laughed. It’s too old to move, she explained. 

“Mi traila es perdida,” she said with an emotional chuckle—a total loss. 

Eva’s story ends as happily as it can. With financial help from NeighborUp, she was able to buy a new mobile home in Garner. But when she moves in the first week of May, she’ll be leaving Cary, and her former home will be left abandoned. 

As Chatham Estates residents search for new homes, plans to redevelop the mobile home park are already underway. 

A site plan was first submitted to the town of Cary last year by a division of developer Toll Brothers, which will codevelop the site with  real estate company Kennedy Wilson. The proposal, now in its fourth round of review, shows plans for 330 apartments, 97 townhomes, a pool, a clubhouse, and a greenway.

Site work is expected to begin in 2027 and will include luxury townhomes and a greenway connecting to downtown Cary and the high-end shopping destination Fenton, Triangle Business Journal reported.

At another Toll Brothers development in Charlotte—a 348-unit apartment complex currently under construction—apartments will have quartz countertops and smart home technology, according to a press release. Amenities include a “resort-style pool,” fitness center, pet spa, and coworking suite. 

With the developers’ history of building luxury homes and apartments, residents say they have the money to help address the displacement caused by their redevelopment of Chatham Estates. On a chilly weekday morning in April, about a dozen residents gathered outside an office tower on Fayetteville Street in hopes of talking to attorney Collier Marsh, who represents the redevelopment project. 

Shivering on the sidewalk, they lifted signs reading: “Your $1.4 million homes are killing our $40,000 dreams” and “0.5% of your profit = our survival.” 

For weeks, residents had been demanding that these billion-dollar developers contribute $2 million to a relocation fund. At the March press conference, Dawah urged them to “show some humanity” and “invest in the people that are being displaced.”

Kennedy Wilson, Toll Brothers, and Marsh did not respond to requests for comment from the INDY. As of this story, neither company had committed to making a donation or meeting with residents, according to Roebuck. 

“They want us, always, to quietly leave,” Roebuck said the morning of the gathering.

And when the residents entered the office tower, hoping to deliver a letter to Marsh, that’s exactly what happened. A receptionist immediately told them they had to leave.

A few minutes after the group retreated from the pristine lobby, the police arrived, four squad cars lighting up around the block. But as people quietly dispersed, officers soon outnumbered activists, and the final few walked away without incident.

While most Chatham Estates residents have been able to apply for financial assistance from StableHomes Cary, the red tape involved has made it difficult for some. 

Roebuck, who has been meeting weekly with Chatham Estates residents to help them navigate the relocation, said a few of the families she works with have had trouble connecting with NeighborUp because of work hours. Some are unable or reluctant to take time off work out of fear of losing their jobs. Others don’t have cars, so they find it difficult to visit the office in person. 

Hobbs said NeighborUp has “made it as low-barrier as possible for people to apply,” posting information about the nonprofit and the financial assistance available door to door and working with people in person and over the phone. Several of the caseworkers speak Spanish and English, but the nonprofit also uses translation services to work with residents who speak other languages, Curry said. 

“We are encouraging everyone to connect with us, because we are here and we are still taking those applications,” Hobbs said. 

Ahead of the relocation effort, NeighborUp increased hours for staff members (converting several from part-time to full-time) and added an additional full-time position.

The StableHomes fund is income limited, meaning applicants have to make below a certain amount of money to qualify. It’s open to households within 300% of the federal poverty level: For a family of two, that means earning less than $64,000 per year. For a family of four, annual income has to fall below $97,000. 

Curry told the INDY that few applications for aid have been rejected but declined to provide a specific number.

In January, NeighborUp started an additional fundraising campaign that doesn’t have the income limits the StableHomes Cary fund does. They are encouraging community members to donate, and have so far raised more than  $76,000, about 30% of their quarter-of-a-million-dollar goal.

After Cary town staff finish reviewing the developer’s proposal, it will go before the Zoning Board of Adjustment, which will vote on whether the project meets six basic conditions, including following the town’s land use rules and a requirement to mitigate traffic impacts. If the board rejects the plan, the developer can resubmit a revised application. 

Regardless, the company doesn’t have to ask for a rezoning or go through a public hearing before the Town Council. That means the Town Council has no leverage to ask the developer to include affordable housing units or meet other conditions.

Meanwhile, in the last week of April, Dawah finally found a place to go: the mobile home park across the street, Mobile Estates. There were only a few spots available, but she “found a great opportunity” to buy a new mobile home, she told the INDY. She got a little financial help from NeighborUp, and paid for the rest with other financing.

To donate to the relocation effort, visit neighborup.org/chathamestates.

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