PEMBROKE — The fate of a Lumbee Tribe effort to provide housing for homeless military veterans rests in the hands of Town Council members who want more information before deciding if the project can proceed as planned.
Council members on Monday tabled discussion of two Lumbee Tribe requests related to the construction of Veterans’ Village on a nine-acre tract of land off Darkwater Lane, behind the Boys and Girls Club and Tribal Administration Complex. Town leaders say the issue will be taken up during the council’s March 2 meeting.
Council members and town staffers need time to study the tribe’s rezoning request, Councilman Larry McNeill said Wednesday.
The tribe has asked the Town Council to approve rezoning the land from multi-family to residential and to issue a conditional-use permit for the operation of a manufactured home park to be called Arrow Point subdivision, a collection of single-family homes.
The tribe’s rezoning request may be in violation of the town’s zoning ordinance, McNeill said.
Only after that determination is made will Town Council vote on whether or not to approve the rezoning request, he said. If the request is rejected, the town will work with the tribe to find another solution.
“We will work with the tribe,” McNeill said. “We have a good relationship with the tribe and we always work with them.”
Zoning is one problem, but another is how the project may be perceived by area residents, according to Town Council member Channing Jones. Some people may see the he creation of Veterans Village in Arrow Point as a case of a low-income, government subsidized mobile home park being dropped in a single-family home subdivision.
“I think it is reasonable to see it that way,” Jones said.
The subdivision is owned by the Lumbee Tribe but is inside town limits, which puts it under the city government’s jurisdiction.
Jones said the tribe applied for a special program through HUD to establish housing for veterans, and through this program will be able to acquire single-wide mobile homes. These homes would be the same type used by the federal government to provide emergency housing after a natural disaster.
“That’s my understanding,” Jones said.
It also is his understanding that the mobile homes acquired have never been used, Jones said.
Jones said he applauds the tribe’s efforts to help veterans, and the town stands ready to help the tribe meet the needs of veterans.
“We’ve got a good relationship with the tribe, and we want to work with the tribe,” Jones said.
The councilman praised the tribe for building what is perhaps the best American Indian housing developments on the East Coast.
“The tribe has done a remarkable job creating housing for tribal members,” Jones said.
Some council members were seeing for the tribe’s requests for first time on Monday, Pembroke Town Manager Tyler Thomas said Tuesday. The council members wanted more time to review the requests and the mobile home park’s construction details.
The normal procedure is for there to be a public hearing and then discussion by the council members during their next regular meeting, he said.
“The process was expedited on behalf of the Lumbee Tribe,” Thomas said.
“Providing veterans supportive housing is one of our greatest needs and a priority for the Lumbee Tribe,” Tribal Administrator Freda Porter said Tuesday.
The tribe-funded project would consist of 20 mobile home lots on which 14-by-64-foot single-wide mobile homes are to sit. The homes would be furnished by the tribe.
The proposal is the result of a partnership between the Lumbee Tribe and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Emergency Management Administration and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Porter said.
“We received 15 new FEMA homes for the sole purpose of housing homeless veterans,” she said.
According to the conditional-use permit application the tribe filed with the town’s Zoning Administration, the mobile home park would have a paved private driveway and have “residential borders,” which were not defined in the document. Each home would have brick underpinning and be connected to town utilities.
