To the Editor:

Old Cullowhee Road in Cullowhee is a beautiful route for viewing land, homes, water and sky. Lately though, there have been dilapidated mobile homes popping up for rent along both sides of the road.

When traveling from Sylva southward on Old Cullowhee there is a recently placed, and extremely sub-standard, mobile home on the left with a green, smiley face sign on the front that says “Now Leasing.”

I cannot believe in any way that this “home” is within HUD standards. Are Jackson County HUD requirements so low that a lower-income person (such as myself) would be forced into this type of  housing?

Not only these, other mobile homes in Cullowhee are in disrepair and offer poorer quality housing than one would like. To the contrary, there are plenty of examples of well-maintained and comfortable mobile homes in Jackson County that accommodate residents well.

I also am aware that in such low economic times we do not, as a capitalist society, need to have some business owners acting with disregard to the economic vitality of the whole area. That is to say all of our property values suffer, and tourist-based businesses lose customers, if the area looks decrepit.  

Can and will someone who works for the county, or an elected official, please address this?

Curt Collins

Cullowhee