The Luckiest Man on Warner Place
Carson Warner just wanted out of his water-logged trailer in rural Virginia. Why would his county elders have a problem with that?
Cover Story
Inside his rural Virginia house trailer, Carson Warner lounges on a love seat that sits atop two-by-fours that keep it from crashing through the waterlogged floor. Black mildew circles stain the ceiling, marking spots where rain has trickled through.
“It’s like a matchbox,” Carson says of the trailer where he lives with his wife, Lorraine, and their 14-year-old daughter, Michelle. “You put water on it and it mushes.”
Carson doesn’t want to fill the holes in the roof or the gaps around the windows. The furnace quit years ago, and the wind that blows through the home clears away the fumes from the kerosene heater.
As he describes living in the run-down trailer, Carson plays Xbox tennis with Michelle on a 54-inch RCA. Next to him, Lorraine watches The Rifleman on a Sony HD flat screen. The televisions fill one end of the trailer. A book shelf behind them is covered with DVD and VHS players.
Carson knows how it looks—the ramshackle home with the nice things like the satellite hookup, the large screens, and the silver Pontiac Grand Prix parked out front. It looks like a rash of bad decisions and mixed-up values.
He knows what people think of him in town, especially since they heard a nonprofit was going to use government money to build him a new house. They don’t think he deserves it. He knows that’s why they blocked it.
In some ways, Carson agrees with them; he's made a mess of things. But at 53, he’s unemployed, sick and broke, and there’s not too much he can do about the past. His family needs a new house and without help, it looks like they will never get it.... Continued 
Issue of Jan. 18 - 24, 2008
News and Features
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Cover Story - What a Deal!
The City - Tell It to the Judge
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