In the middle of Chatham Estates Mobile Home Park, a little girl in a pink Bluey shirt spins herself around atop a concrete slab. She twirls with her blue backpack in her outstretched hand — bunny ears on the top and a mermaid stitched on the side.
The two red brick stairs just a few feet from the girl used to lead to the floor of a pavilion with tin roofing, where Chatham Estates residents gathered for monthly meetings.
To the right of the pavilion, there used to be a playground with swings and slides. The school bus stopped right at the intersection, so the kids came to play while the mothers watched. Both the pavilion and playground were removed a few months ago, residents said.
“When that happened, I thought that’s very strange, but the property [has been] for sale for the past two years,” Katia Roebuck, an organizer with the N.C. Congress of Latino Organizations, said. “So I thought maybe something is up.”
Now, residents are worried the sale may be imminent and they may have to leave the park.
On Wednesday, roughly 40 neighbors gathered at the former site of the pavilion to discuss what some say they heard from the daughter of owner Curtis Westbrook Sr.: that residents would get a notice on Dec. 29 that Chatham Estates — right off East Chatham Street near downtown and one of the last affordable places for low-income residents to live in Cary — would close. From there, residents would have six months to relocate.
Real estate company Lee and Associates is working with Westbrook to sell the property. Lee and Associates Executive Vice President Karah Jennings McConnell declined to comment about Chatham Estates’ possible closure when reached by The News & Observer. Westbrook and Associates did not respond to voicemails The N&O left.
Since Westbrook put the property up for sale over two years ago, some residents have since moved, but most of the roughly 700 residents couldn’t afford to. Emidia Roblero, a WakeMed housekeeper, said they likely couldn’t afford to live in Wake County — much less Cary, where the average rent is $2,100 a month, according to Zillow. Residents pay $400 a month for a plot on Chatham Estates.
Roblero has lived at Chatham Estates for 16 years. Speaking Spanish with Roebuck translating, Roblero said she lived in Raleigh for a little while but felt safer in Cary. The schools are great for her four kids, and the mobile home park is a 10-minute drive to their church, St. Michael the Archangel.
“That’s why [I] love living here, because [I’m] connected to here,” Roblero said. “It’s hard because everything is close to [me]. [My] four children are concerned because they know they’ll have to leave and change schools.”
Many of the mobile homes’ structures are so old they’ll crumble if residents try to move them. Roblero said her home can be moved, but she worries about much older neighbors who won’t be able to move.
Maria Linares, a cleaner who has lived in Chatham Estates for 18 years, said her home, built in 1990, can’t be moved without falling apart. Linares said she’s been looking for other places to live in Cary and can’t find anywhere she can afford. For her, six months isn’t enough time to get the money necessary to relocate.
Linares and other residents are demanding to meet with whoever buys Chatham Estates to discuss how they can help with funds for residents to relocate. Even for those who can move their mobile homes, that could cost $15,000 to $18,000, Roebuck said.
In March 2024, the Cary Town Council approved Stable Homes Cary, a partnership between the town and nonprofit Dorcas Ministries that provides cash assistance and displacement support for residents, The N&O previously reported.
The town committed an initial $800,000 to Dorcas and Stable Homes Cary and earmarked a further $1.65 million over the next three years, including $600,000 in 2026. Of the $1.55 million the town appropriated from its general fund, $500,000 has been spent so far, according to the town’s 2026 budget.
But in order to receive the money, Dorcas requires applicants to have a bank account. Many residents at Chatham Estates are in the country without legal authorization, so they don’t have an account, Roebuck said.
When residents of Wellington Park in Wake Forest — also paying rents well below the town average and facing displacement from their mobile home park — organized with the help of Roebuck, they secured almost $14,000 per family from the new owners to relocate. Roebuck hopes Chatham Estates residents can similarly secure the funds they need.
“Not only [is there] the sense of they have to move, but they’re losing their community,” Roebuck said. “They’re losing their place of worship. They’re losing their schools. Anything that they built their life around.”
This story was originally published December 26, 2025 at 3:50 PM.
Twumasi Duah-Mensah
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