Fayetteville building code officers have finished a sweep of the city's 75 mobile home parks.
During six months, inspectors turned up nearly 700 violations, according to Michael Martin, of the Development Services Department. Most were for substandard housing, and Martin said most of these have led to necessary repairs.
“We've gotten great compliance with the mobile home park managers as well as residents,” he said. “Of course there are going to be a couple of structures that just are beyond repair and it's up to the owner, it's up to the mobile home park manager, to try to repair that or to remove it and put up another mobile home park there.”
Martin insisted the city is not trying to do away with mobile home parks. Instead, he said, the city wants to establish a baseline for ordinance compliance records throughout various regions of the city.
“We would like to be a partner in getting things fixed, to improving conditions,” he said. “Enforcement is one of the last things we want to do to ensure something is fixed, but it's something we have to do sometimes.”
Earlier this month, Martin's office temporarily requested the city shut-off power to the Mobile Manor trailer park. That followed a complaint about the electric system that was unrelated to the sweep. Martin said lights are back on in most of Mobile Manor, though some homes were beyond repair.