Mobile Home Park Residents Face Homelessness
AURORA, Colo. (CBS4)- Many families living at Denver Meadows Mobile Home Park in Aurora say they are facing homelessness when the park closes down.
"We have to be off this property by July 1, 2018," says tenant Isabelle Ross.
Ross continues to get notices on her door saying the mobile home park where she lives will shut down next summer. She says her mobile home cannot be moved because of its age. She has been living in the park more than two decades.
"I have to move this monster of a trailer that will cost me between $6,000 and $10,000 and there is no place to move it."
Moving is also a problem for tenant Petra Bennett. She says not only have managers raised the lot rents three times in the past year but also picking up and moving is not as easy as it sounds.
"I live in a modular home and have to pay $12,000 to cut it in half and put it on a trailer."
Bennett says the bigger issue is where to move, "There is no place currently in Aurora, Westminster, Arvada, Thornton and all the way up to Bennett. They aren't receiving mobile homes from private people."
The owners of the park tell CBS4's Jennifer Brice that tenants are being given ample time, two years notice, before they have to more. They also say they do not want to manage anymore and want to retire.
Tenants say they are willing to buy the land.
Through the organization, 9 to 5, they have been connected to banks willing to finance the land for them, according to Bennett.
"We were willing to pay $18 million for this piece of land so the residents can stay and not lose their homes, but he's (the owners) are just not willing to sell to us," said Bennett.
She add that she is in a real bind now, "I'm looking to be homeless."
The owners and managers of Denver Meadows did not want to talk on camera. The tenants say they are now attempting to work with city council to find some help.
Jennifer Brice is a reporter with CBS4 focusing on crime and courts. Follow her on Facebook or on Twitter @CBS4Jenn.
