On Tuesday evening, about 27 residents of a mobile home community in East Nashville met with their district councilmember to share stories about receiving eviction notices and to ask for help with the situation. Tenants at 198 Gatewood Ave. received the eviction notices in September, a few weeks following the sale of the property.
The LLC that bought the land sent the notices, according to a copy provided by Workers’ Dignity, a workers’ center in Nashville that is helping the mobile home residents organize. The eviction notice tells the tenants to remove all personal possessions from the property, including their mobile homes, by the eviction date, and to keep paying rent until then. Councilmember Sean Parker, who represents District 5 where the community is located, met with the Gatewood residents to learn more about the situation.
Several residents, most speaking in Spanish, said they had no idea the land was up for sale until they received the eviction notices.
“Because we were never notified, we didn’t have a chance to organize with our neighbors to try and stop it,” said Martha Herrera.
One man said it’s hard to find work during the winter, and that a later move-out date would be more helpful.
"There are families here who don't have the money to go and buy or rent a new home," said the man. "We have small children. ... And December is a bad time for us — there's no work."
He also added that the residents were being asked to destroy their own trailers — a difficult request since many families put a lot of effort into their homes. Tenants hope they can get more time to move out, and possibly compensation for their mobile homes.
Cecilia Prado of Workers’ Dignity added that tenants shared stories of management harassing them, including breaking children’s toys. Some complained that the property manager has raised rents on them.
Guadalupe Andrade told the Scene about her family’s experience at the mobile home park. She, her parents and her four siblings have lived at 198 Gatewood for nine or 10 years, she said. Her youngest brother needs a wheelchair and has special needs, but she said her parents had to argue with management for permission to build a ramp for him, as well as for permission to use a nearby gate so he could access the school bus.
Andrade said the eviction notice was stressful to her whole family, but especially to her parents. It was difficult to find new housing, she said, but her family is closing in on a new home. All the same, she wanted to speak out for her neighbors who are still looking for more time to stay in place.
“If they give [my family] more time, that'd be OK,” she said. “If they don't, it's all right. ... But maybe other people [who] just don't have another home to get to right now, maybe we could get them a little bit more time.”
The story may sound very familiar. Earlier this year, a different mobile home community also decried receiving eviction notices. That community was located on 1508 Dickerson Pike, not far from 198 Gatewood Ave., and is also owned by Tony Clouse. The residents at the Dickerson Pike mobile park home successfully lobbied to delay the sale of the property — which bought them more time to move into new housing — and are now trying to secure compensation for the remaining families.
Parker said he was frustrated that Clouse is once again involved in a situation in which tenants are facing evictions due to a property sale they were unaware of.
“He's been really just remarkably uncaring for the people who've been paying him rent for all these years,” Parker told the Scene. “And it's just super disappointing to see someone who doesn't mind that being their legacy.”
Parker told the residents he doesn’t have the power to stop or reverse the sale of the property, but can support the residents in negotiating with the new owners. Parker added he had passed legislation requiring property owners to notify tenants about redevelopment proposals.
“Clearly these folks need to be able to at least make their case to the new owners that, you know, this is not a time that we can do this,” he told the Scene. “We need a little more time, work will pick back up when it gets warm, everyone will have a [much] easier time getting on their feet. And I think that's a reasonable case to make.”
Initially, tenants and organizers at Workers’ Dignity weren’t sure who the owner was. However, reports from August about the sale of 198 Gatewood and surrounding areas as well as the LLC’s address on the deed point to Beau Fowler of the Wedgewood Avenue real estate firm.
The Metro Council, including Parker, approved the zoning change for the area back in May. Asked about the vote, Parker sent the following statement: "These developers began emailing and calling me about this project in fall of 2020. They've had a full year to inform their tenants of the process. They did not and now they're pushing them out in the dead of winter and forcing them to demolish their own homes. That's unacceptable. It's clear that Metro needs to improve its noticing and reduce language barriers because we cannot count on property owners and developers to do the right thing. My Tenant Notice bill is a start but we have a lot more work to do."
The Scene reached out to Clouse and Fowler for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
