Sep 3, 2008 6:30 pm US/Eastern
Mobile Home Park Residents To Protest Eviction
Residents Have Until February 28th To Move
DAVIE (CBS4) ―
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Residents of Davie's largest mobile home park have until February 28th, 2009 to move.
CBS
Some are angry, others fearful, most frustrated. Wednesday night hundreds of residents of Davie's largest mobile home park are expected to march on townhall to protest their eviction at a town council meeting.
More than 900 low income families call the Palma Nova mobile home park off Davie Road and I-595 home. Last month, they received eviction notices from the park's owner and developer Austin Forman, one of Broward County's most politically influential businessmen, stating that they had until February 28, 2009 to move.
"I've lived here for 19 years," Marion Grand said, as she cried. "I don't know what I'm gonna do, and I mean this is my home, and all of a sudden like they're just going to take my home away."
"What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?" wondered Karina Ramos.
Ramos and her young family saved and bought a mobile home in Palma Nova in July, 2008; a month before the eviction notices went out. Ramos told
CBS4 reporter Carey Codd she feels betrayed.
"Why they did they do that to me," questioned Ramos. "They should have let me know, that way I don't buy this mobile home."
Most residents of Palma Nova are angry about the eviction notices. Not only will it require finding new schools for their children, they also know that it will be too expensive to move their mobile homes and nearly impossible to sell them if the home is old.
Families like the Ramos' will likely receive some money from the state, but not enough to cover what she's lost.
"Who's gonna give me my $6 thousand dollars back," demanded Ramos, "Nobody."
Under state law, residents displaced from a single wide mobile home receive $1,375; from a doublewide $2,750. Resident who opt to move their mobile home are eligible for anywhere from $3, thousand to $6 thousand.
In accordance to the Town of Davie law, Palma Nova has provided residents with a list of affordable housing in the area. But for many paying a few hundreds dollars a month in lot fees is a whole lot easier than paying a thousand in rent. And no one can help Karina Ramos and many others with that.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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