New apartment complex results in eventual eviction of trailer park residents

A mobile home park and travel trailer community in Tempe are going to go because they stand in the path of progress.

People who live there are not happy about it, with big changes happening near Arizona State University.

When mass transit comes, a train in this case, near a hugely important place like ASU. Old uses for the land get overtaken by new uses.

It puts a painful squeeze on people who have called these places home for years.

The Tempe Travel Trailer Villa is next to the light rail line and close to ASU. It's been rezoned and the developer, Fore Property Company, wants to build apartments.

"Well we do not like it at all, planned to be here for four years until life retires and travel, now we will have to find another place close by," said Dave Corbett.

"I'm not sure where we're going to go, or what we're going to do, I have been here for years and maybe I will get an apartment. But I don't like apartments, I would rather live here actually," said Rick Morris.

Some people who live at the park are filled with dread at the prospect of having to leave.

"Right now I am behind on all my bills, I may be the first to go, I'll live on the streets before I live without my dog, it keeps me alive," said Kathy Warner.

It's the same deal next door at the Pony Acres Mobile Home Park. It's also going to go as part of the plan to build a new apartment complex. But the developer pledges there will be help. It has hired a social service coordinator to help folks who are displaced look for new places to live.

Residents at both parks are resigned to an uncertain future.

"Well what I think is irrelevant, because they will do it anyway, I don't look at it from that point of view. That is the way it goes, I wish they couldn't do it," said Rick Morris.

The new apartment complex will not happen right away. It might take a period of months.

Tempe's City Council voted unanimously to rezone the site last week.