Saturday, August 13, 2011

Mobile Home Residents Face Homelessness As New Buyer Of Park In Foreclosure Wants Everyone Out

In Niagara Falls, New York, WIVB-TV Channel 4 reports:
  • A local mobile home park in Niagara Falls has been sold and residents are left with a lot of questions that aren't being answered. It's one of the downsides of owning a home in a mobile home park. You put your life into living there, but if the park owner decides to use the property for something else, you, in effect, could become homeless.


  • Homeowners at Sabre Park are furious. They have spent thousands of dollars on their mobile homes, kept them up, made improvements, and now, they're finding out the park owner is selling the place and interested buyers want the trailers out.

***

  • Many of the homeowners found notices taped to their doors, purportedly from an attorney for the Sabre Park's owner, saying the new owners will pay $25,000 for the entire park and assume their $6 million mortgage. The park is apparently in foreclosure and a management firm has been hired by a court-assigned receiver to run things. Kathleen Graham said, "Everybody's going to be homeless."


  • A chilling thought for Joyce and Jim O'Donnell, who have lived in their double wide for more than 25 years. Joyce said, "We just don't know where we're going to go at our age, you know? We'd hate to give up this; we put our money in this. Where do we go?" "We can't sell it. Nobody's going to buy it because they're going to have to take it out of here. It'd cost us a small fortune to move one of these double-wides," said Jim.


  • The O'Donnells are not alone. Many of the residents wanted these to be their retirement homes.

For more, see Mobile home residents booted from park.