Manufactured Insecurity: Mobile Home Parks and Americans’ Tenuous Right to Place

265 Pages·2018·4.496 MB·English

by  Esther Sullivan

Manufactured Insecurity
Mobile Home Parks and Americans’
Tenuous Right to Place
esther sullivan
University of California Press
Manufactured Insecurity

Manufactured Insecurity
Mobile Home Parks and Americans’
Tenuous Right to Place
esther sullivan
University of California Press
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university
presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by
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information, visit www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2018 by Esther Sullivan
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sullivan, Esther, 1981– author.
Title: Manufactured insecurity : mobile home parks and Americans’
tenuous right to place / Esther Sullivan.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: lccn 2018003002 (print) | lccn 2018006521 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520968356 (ebook) | isbn 9780520295643 (cloth : alk. paper) |
isbn 9780520295667 (paper)
Subjects: lcsh: Mobile homes—Florida. | Mobile homes—Texas. |
Mobile homes—Sociological aspects.
Classification: lcc hd7289.62.u6 (ebook) |
lcc hd7289.62.u6 s85 2018 (print) | dc 333.33/8—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018003002
27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of
Daniel Sullivan, M. D. (1980–2016), who dedicated his
mind to alleviating human suffering

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
prologue 1
introduction: halfway homeowners 12
1. the mobile home in america and americana 31
2. socio-spatial stigma and trailer trash 53
3. daily life under the specter of dislocation 75
4. “we are not for sure wherever we are” 100
5. relocation and the paradox of state
interventions 126
6. communities as currency within the mobile
home empire 159
conclusion 186
Methodological Appendix 205
Notes 223
References 233
Index 247

Illustrations
maps
1. All Mobile Home Park Parcels by Year Range, Houston, Harris
County, Texas, 2002–2011 60
2. Lost Mobile Home Park Parcels by Year Range, Houston, Harris
County, Texas, 2002–2011 62
3. Significant Clusters of Lost Mobile Home Parks, Harris
County, Texas, 2002–2011 63
4. Harris County Land Use by Parcel, New Development, 2011 64
figures
1. Example of visual screening around a mobile home park 33
2. A man plays with his child on the street in front of his
mobile home 33
3. Singlewides inside Silver Sands in Jupiter, Florida 57
4. Homes inside Ramos y Ramos in Alvin, Texas 58
5. A picket fence encloses land that the homeowner cultivates
but does not own 86
6. A For Sale sign on a mobile home that has been deemed
“structurally unsound” for relocation 94
7. A woman sits on the foundation of her former home 108
8. A home is relocated out of a closing mobile home park 120
9. A homeowner watches as his doublewide is split and
hauled away 122
ix