City of Summerside outlines what it can do to help residents of mobile home parks
CBC
The City of Summerside is outlining what it can and can’t do to support people who rent land in mobile home parks in the municipality.
Summerside council voted unanimously on Tuesday to pass a resolution clarifying the city's options to help mobile home park residents when issues with property owners arise.
The resolution was prompted by the situation residents are facing in a long-established mobile home park within the city called Evergreen Village. The park has about 57 homes and 200 residents. Everyone was issued eviction notices last year because the park's owner, Clifford McQuaid, plans to sell off the land due to aging infrastructure.
Officials with the province said they tried to buy the land, but a deal couldn't be made.
“This policy basically … explains where our hands are tied and where they're not,” said Coun. Bruce MacDougall, adding expropriating the land would not be appropriate.
In the resolution, council outlined what it can do to help mobile home residents facing possible eviction, including:
The resolution states that the City of Summerside will not finance the purchase of a park.
MacDougall said the city is currently putting together a task force to find a solution for the park's residents.
“These people, you know, in the next couple of months with this eviction hanging over their heads [are] going to have to make some real hard decisions…. They're probably going to walk away with nothing … and that's the sad part about this,” he said.
“I don't think anybody's been dragging their feet, but it has been moving at a snail’s pace and these residents are really, really concerned and I don't blame them.”
It’s not just residents in Evergreen Village facing challenges.
Twin Rivers Properties, the owner of Summerside's Linkletter Estates mobile home park, recently sent letters to residents asking if they wanted to buy the land their homes sit on for $12,500 per lot. If they can’t do that, the company said it will put the land up for sale.
Twin Rivers CEO Blair van Veld said in an earlier interview with CBC News that he does not want what's happening at Evergreen Village to happen to Linkletter Estates residents, and he is hopeful provincial and municipal governments can find a solution “that works for all parties.”
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