Forum Tribune 07/14/05

We would like to thank Lenny DellaRocca for this important editoral regarding the thousands of mobile home owners in Coconut Creek.

If folks living in mobile home parks haven't yet seen the handwriting on the wall, they will soon.

Residents at the Coral Lake Mobile Home Park in Coconut Creek know what I am talking about. A mobile home community in Deerfield and others in Broward also know.

These people, many of whom have lived for decades in these neighborhoods, are being forced out by developers who buy the land on which their homes sit. Local governments, such as the city of Coconut Creek, change the zoning so that powerful business people can build either mixed-use developments, or new condominiums, townhouses or apartments.

It is a scary trend for people who will be told pack up and ship out.

Where will they go? Many don't know. One only need turn the TV on, or pick up a local newspaper to see that housing is not affordable for those who are not rich.

Some of the mobile homes are so old that moving them is impossible. (The name mobile home is really a misnomer).

While some money is available to these folks, ostensibly so they can pay to move their dwelling, it is nowhere near enough to offset the expense of moving lock stock and barrel.

Still, should they find another mobile home park to move to, how long will it be before that owner sells the very ground beneath them?

And for those whose mobile home is too frail to move, the small amount of money certainly isn't a down payment for a condo or house. It's probably not enough to pay first, last and security to rent an apartment.

What it really is, is the loss of the American Dream. If is putting home ownership out of reach for these people, who have the smallest piece of that mythological dream. It strengthens the power of the rich, and weakens, if that's possible, the poor. And make no mistake, these residents are closer to poor then they are to middle class.

This land grab removes the last barrier that kept many of them from being homeless.

And if by chance some of them end up living under a bridge and selling newspapers on our street corners, there will be a cry from those who live in the fancy townhouses that put your neighbors in the street to make them go away. These will be the happy residents who will not look the homeless in the eye as they idle at a traffic light in pleasant American air-conditioning.

Move out of the bulldozer's way, we are making refugees here.

Now, with the Supreme Court ruling that has filed the teeth of eminent domain into fangs, nobody is safe. The juggler is exposed to developers and cities who salivate at the thought of money's green blood.

Today it is mobile homes swept from the Earth, who knows what it will be tomorrow?

How nice those new townhouses will look for those who can afford them.

Can you see smiling city officials and slick developers with those shovels in their hands at ground-breaking ceremonies to a neighborhood near you?

Those shovels may be breaking ground, but they are also breaking hearts and spirits.

And burying hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.

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Lenny DellaRocco can be reached at ldellarocca@tribune.com Messages may be used as Letters to the Editor.