Sun-Sentinel 08/13/06

We would like to thank Lisa J. Huriash for her indepth reporting on the mass eviction of mobile home owners.

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Trailer residents lose their homes as park owners find permanent housing is a more lucrative alternative
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By Lisa J. Huriash Staff Writer

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

August 13, 2006

From Plantation to Margate to North Lauderdale, mobile homes are being shuttered, their homeowners evicted and the land sold to developers.

The newest notice came recently as about 300 homeowners at the Village Park Mobile Home Estates, off Prospect Road on the Fort Lauderdale-North Lauderdale border, were told the property has been sold and residents need to be gone by June 30.

Village Park Homeowners Association Executive Vice President Teddy Indyk has lived in the park for a year and spent $13,000 to buy his trailer and another $11,000 in repairs after Hurricane Wilma. He said residents are crushed.

"They are throwing people out and they don't care what happens to them," Indyk said. "It's not fair. We have people in our park who are over 70 years old. They are on a fixed income; where are they going to go?"

Robert Briele, executive vice president for United Homes International and spokesman for Village Park, said there are 307 mobile home spaces in the park and about 280 tenants.

A proposed site plan for the 40-acre property includes 168 two-bedroom townhouses, 222 three-bedroom townhouses, 96 two-bedroom condos and 64 three-bedroom condos, Briele said. The estimated prices are from the low- to mid-$200,000s to the low-$300,000s, he said.

"The 441 corridor from Margate to Lauderdale Lakes is in a redevelopment process," he said. "We have built several new projects within this area, and the demand for new housing in this area is high."

Briele added that the firm is working to make things easier for Village Park residents.

"We are only required to give six months' notice. However, we understand that some people may require more time to relocate; therefore, we are giving the residents one year," he said. "We also hired an independent company to sit with each and every tenant, if they so desire, to assist them in the relocation."

The situation is not limited to Village Park. In Plantation, residents at Sunshine City have begun their exodus.

A walk through the development -- which is where west Broward Boulevard dead-ends -- shows many residents stripping down their homes and starting to leave.

Since word of their eviction came because the land their mobile homes sit on is being sold, little girls are taking their posters of puppies off their bedroom walls, clothes are being folded into empty food cartons, and things that are too heavy, such as wooden cabinet sets, are often left behind.

Mary Edwards, 58, is moving to Ocala. She has lived there since 1991 and paid off her $27,000 mobile home that is too old to try to move.

She held her head in both hands and began to cry as she stood in her near-empty trailer, with the sofa and cabinet set still in its place, and only her chocolate Labrador retriever's water dish still on the floor.

"I need help," she said. "I've worked for this and it's all gone. They are treating us like trash -- trailer trash."

Chris Weiss, 31, is finishing his packing, too, mostly out of boxes he picked up at Publix. He's heading further upstate to Leesburg to another mobile home park with his two children, ages 11and 7. To find his new home, he got in his car and drove north until he found the closest thing to a major city that looked appealing.

"It's sick," he said. "I looked [in South Florida] but you can't buy a mobile home for less than $100,000 for a piece of junk. It makes me want to cry, really."

Sunshine City residents have until November to leave, but their compensation packages can be higher if they move quickly.Residents at Aztec Estates, a 100-acre mobile home park in Margate, were recently warned that park managers are considering "alternatives" for the property "which includes ... [the] sale of Aztec." The property owner's attorney said the management is contemplating selling the land for townhouses.

Although they have not been given an eviction notice, residents fear the worst.

Daniel Keeley, 18, lives with his parents at the park. He said his parents have their sights set on North Carolina and plan to move their trailer with them.

"It's a lot cheaper to live there, and when you just bought your home for $60,000, you'd like to take it with you," he said. "They are really upset. They don't make a lot and they still have a mortgage on the home."

Last year, Coconut Creek commissioners rezoned the 29-acre Coral Lake Mobile Home Park, at Wiles and Lyons roads, to make way for 244 townhouses and 56 condominiums.

In Margate, 243 homeowners have until Sept. 30 to evacuate the Rancho Margate mobile home park off State Road 7 so townhouses can be built. And in Fort Lauderdale, the 113 trailers and RVs at Floridale Mobile Homes south of State Road 84 eventually will be replaced by townhouses.

Janet Riley, an attorney with Legal Aid Service of Broward County, said it's lower-income earners who are suffering the most as land is gobbled for big development, and rental apartments are converted into condos.

"It's very unfortunate circumstances and they are caught in the middle," Riley said. "They bought their mobile home and, for them, put a large sum of money into them. They thought they'd live there a long time only to be put out. Where are they going to live in Broward County? There's nowhere.

"If the cities are going to allow the developers to take these properties and build expensive townhouses, they need to provide affordable housing for people. Nobody is addressing those needs. There's no place for these folks to go."

At Sunshine City, Weiss said his neighbors have told him they are headed to Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, places where it's cheaper to live.

He bought his four-bedroom trailer two years ago for $12,500 and sunk another $12,000 in repairs after Wilma. He found a two-bedroom trailer in Leesburg for $37,000 "with a full carport, an above-ground pool and the workshop has air-conditioning.

"I'm losing everything here," he said. "I have no choice. It's absolutely devastating."

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sun-sentinel.com or 954-572-2008.

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