'Traumatized' residents of 3 Phoenix mobile home parks being forced out attend special council meeting
PHOENIX - A special Phoenix City Council meeting took place Monday night to discuss the future of the residents of mobile home parks that are effectively shutting down.
The residents of three mobile home parks in Phoenix – Weldon Court, Periwinkle and Las Casitas – are being forced out because the owners of these properties have decided on a land use change.
The March 6 meeting was a way for the city to propose and hear ideas, as well as offer ways to give these people some assistance.
Residents may own the mobile homes they live in, but they don’t own the land those mobile homes sit on. An Arizona statue says property owners have to give residents 180 days notice, and those deadlines are coming up.
Those at Weldon Court must leave by April 1. Residents at Periwinkle and Las Casitas are being forced out in May.
MORE: Phoenix mobile home community residents being told to leave the property
At the special city council meeting, residents had the chance to ask the city to step in and provide solutions.
Alondra Ruiz, a resident of Periwinkle, a property owned by Grand Canyon University (GCU), says she has nowhere to go and will likely be homeless by the end of May.
"How do you kick out families out of their homes that they’ve been in for so many years – that we own? 'Cause we paid for them, in the middle of a housing crisis? It makes no sense. That makes no sense to me. So, I’m very upset, very emotional, very traumatized by all this. As I talk to my neighbors and as we unite, we realize that we’re all facing a lot of trauma," she said.
The state offers around $10,000 to relocate these mobile homes if they can be relocated. Residents says the older homes need costly repairs and would not be able to be moved.
If they don’t move out by their designated move out days, these residents face eviction.
"This has got to stop. I mean, what a disgrace to a great country like this. I better stop before my language gets ugly but I'm mad as hell and you better stop this madness," a name named Gerald Sutter said at the meeting.
GCU students also came in to advocate for the residents.
"I came here to speak today to express and strongly condemn what my university is doing to the residents of the Periwinkle Mobile Home Park. Displacement under the words development is still displacement," the student remarked.