Residents of the Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park in Sweetwater, Florida, were recently notified that they will need to find a place to live and quickly. The community of more than 900 mobile homes, together housing 2,000 to 300,000 people at the mayor’s estimate, will close in May 2025 to make way for new affordable and workforce housing.
Mobile home owners often live in the home but rent the land it stands on. The owner of the land in this case, CREI Holdings, says it will give 14,000 dollars to the residents who will leave by January 31, 2025. Those who will leave on March 31 or April 30, will receive 7,000 dollars and 3,000 dollars respectively. say there’s not enough time or money, according to an NBC6 report.
Sergio Zamora lives in the park with his wife and in-laws, who have owned a home in the Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park for more than 30 years.
“They paid for the house to be told you’re homeless,” Zamora told NBC6. Imagine that you have a property and someone tells you that you don’t.
The incentive packages being offered to park owners exceed what is required by Florida law. According to the Miami Herald, the owner is required to recoup the transfer costs by providing 3,000 dollars and 6,000 dollars for a single and double room, respectively.
Residents say more than 14,000 dollars are needed to pay for a new house. Mobile parks are also becoming increasingly scarce in Florida.
Even if they can find a new park to move to, it won’t be cheap. According to CostHelper.com, a mobile phone that travels up to 60 miles including disconnection, connection and shipping costs $3,500 for a single unit, $4,000-$10,000 for a double-wide and $10,000-$14,000 or more. there are three-wide, depending on the size and location.
Hamilton Dos Santos told the Miami Herald that he paid $160,000 for his mobile home four months ago using his savings and now it’s “totally lost money.” He said it can cost more than $10,000 to move his trailer. Many mobile homes, the report says, “are installed on the ground, making their relocation either impossible or prohibitively expensive.”
Melvin del Chiaro told 7News Miami that he has his house in the park but he can’t get rid of it.
“It is unimaginable. I fixed up my house, and it’s worth $180,000, and they only want to give me $2,750 to walk away? Because I can’t transfer my mobile phone,” he said.
“We need a lot to be able to go,” said Zamora. “Motivation is not enough, not for most of these people.”