128 ONE Wake members attended the Las Americas Press Conference last Saturday at 4:00 pm: an impressive number given that we had only 72 hours notice before the action. 166 members registered total, but some were not able to join the call due to an unexpected technical issue with the Zoom account which was later resolved.

THANK YOU to all who took time out of their day to attend or attempt to attend this important action!  

The press conference was led by five leaders directly involved with the community organizing effort in this Cary neighborhood which is composed of nearly 300 households, and is one of the largest remaining "naturally occurring" affordable housing developments in town. The Las Americas Rise to Win neighborhood association is a dues paying member of ONE Wake.

Media in attendance included Indyweek, the News and Observer, CBS 17, and Spectrum News. 

The purpose of the action was to call for a meeting and negotiation with the owner of the mobile home park community. Resident demands include: 

- Postponement of a planned rent increases and new signing of new contracts given the lack of required 60 days notice to residents;

- Copies of all current leases to be sent to residents, which clearly spell out the terms of their contracts, including a list of prohibited behaviors and the amount of fines for each violation.    

The NC Justice Center has been providing technical support to residents to address the above issues. Neighborhood leaders are also working with the office of Attorney General Josh Stein to address a related issue regarding residents who have completed rent to own payments on their homes, but who have still not received their titles to their homes. 

Next Steps

Neighborhood leaders are now awaiting a reaction from the owner to the above demands. ONE Wake members will receive more updates as soon as we have more information to share about additional ways to support this resident-led campaign.

In the meantime we are anticipating an article in the News and Observer to go to print soon. We will post any stories from our press conference on the ONE Wake Facebook page, which you can follow here. 

Questions? 

Contact us at [email protected]