Elderly Residents In Mobile Home Park In Foreclosure May Face The Boot With No Place To Go

In Minerva, Ohio, the Canton Repository reports on the Minerva Hillside Terraces, a somewhat dilapidated 20-unit mobile home park owned by a landlord facing foreclosure in which the residents, many of whom are reportedly elderly, live on fixed incomes, and face the boot:

• On Jan. 28, Huntington National Bank, which holds the property’s mortgage, filed for foreclosure. [Landlord David] Audino owes the bank at least $385,000 for two promissory notes he signed in 2001 and 2003 and a note he signed as owner of Dylan Homes in 2003.(1) Residents didn’t know what to expect. “What are we supposed to do? Do we have so many weeks? Or so many days? It’s a constant worry on us,” [resident Martha] Tucker said.

• While Tucker may live in a mobile home park, she isn’t exactly mobile. Tucker lives on a fixed income of $776 a month and says she has little money left over after bills. “Right now, I couldn’t come up with a penny if I had to,” she said.

• Harry Hagan, who moved to Minerva Hillside in 1985, said his trailer would need expensive repairs before it could be moved. Otherwise, he said, “It would fall apart on the road.” And he doesn’t believe the repairs would be worth it. “It would cost me more to move than what the trailer is worth,” he said. “One trailer is worth $1,500, but to move it would be $5,000.”

• The good news is that Huntington hasn’t indicated it plans to close the park, said Attorney Dawn Spriggs of Community Legal Aid in Canton,(2) who represents seven residents at Minerva Hillside. Instead, the bank has appointed a receiver to operate the park while the foreclosure is pending and to help improve the park’s financial condition. “His job is to write a report after a period of time to basically recommend what to do with the park,” Spriggs said. “He has to weigh the liabilities and assets.”

• The bad news, Spriggs said, is that the bank could sell the property, and Minerva Hillside’s new owners could decide to use the land for something other than a mobile home park. And residents can do little to stop it, she said. None of them signed a lease with Audino when they moved in.

For the story, see Minerva trailer park residents fear they're losing their homes.

(1) Reportedly, Audino, who has owned the park since 2001, had also stopped paying the water and sewer bills for the park. He owed the village more than $7,000 in past-due charges and county health officials have deemed the park a public health nuisance, the story states.

(2) Community Legal Aid Services, Inc. is a non-profit Ohio law firm serving the legal needs of low income and senior Ohioans in Columbiana, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, and Wayne Counties.