One group wants the suit to improve the mobile home park; the other says it is unnecessary.
By SHANNON TAN
Published April 4, 2004
LARGO - They moved into their double-wide 14 years ago, when living in mobile home parks was a way of life.
John and Gerry Goldsborough were proud to call it home. They painted walls, scraped mildew and added a patio and Florida room.
But over the years, they found that many neighbors in Whispering Pines Mobile Home Park at 7501 142nd Ave. N no longer care as much as they do.
There are homes with missing siding, mold on the walls and aluminium foil on the windows. Carports and yards are littered with wood, tires, rusty bicycles.
Meanwhile, lot rents keep going up. They've lost count of the number of different managers running the park. The residents' association is even suing the park owner, but the Goldsboroughs doubt the lawsuit will change things.
So they're calling it quits. They have put their home up for sale. They plan on moving to a park for seniors 55 and older.
"You have a lot of people who don't have pride in their house," said Gerry Goldsborough, 58. "It's stagnating."
While the Goldsboroughs are escaping Whispering Pines' increasing problems, the residents who remain are now divided over the lawsuit filed by the residents' association against the park's owner, Hometown America.
Some say the suit is justified, noting that several of the crumbling homes have attracted transients and crime.
Others say the association is overreaching and that the park owner is already trying to rectify conditions at the park.
On the face of it, Whispering Pines is still one of the better family parks in Largo. Residents have a clubhouse, pool, shuffleboard court, playground and tennis courts. Many keep their place tidy and plant flowers in their yards.
But the Goldsboroughs say they've seen people going in and out of a mobile home to score nickel and dime bags of drugs. They had to call the police when kids broke into a neighbor's mobile home and left the water running in the bathtub.
Largo police report 215 calls for service to the park this year, up from 187 during the same period last year. The park has 392 homes.
Polly A. Moore, president of Whispering Pines Resident Association, didn't want her community to end up like the blighted mobile home parks on Clearwater-Largo Road that have been targeted for redevelopment.
The group filed the lawsuit in November against Hometown America, alleging unreasonable rent increases and a decrease in amenities and services.
"It's the biggest damn mistake I made," Moore said of moving to the park four years ago.
Jim Brasier, division vice president at Hometown America's Tampa office, said he could not comment on continuing litigation.
The lawsuit "is the only way they can make it better," said St. Petersburg attorney Karen E. Maller, who is representing the residents' association. She said mediation didn't work.
Don Hazelton, president of the Federation of Manufactured Home Owners of Florida and a 14-year Whispering Pines resident, says the litigation is unnecessary.
He said some maintenance problems hadn't been addressed before, but the park's new managers have made significant improvements in the past few months.
"I was frustrated before not having a manager," he said. "(We) finally got a pair who care. Then all of a sudden (the association) file(s) a lawsuit and beat(s) them over the head."
He is troubled the association listed residents who had violated park rules. The managers then posted violation notices at these homes. Those who get two notices for the same violation face eviction.
"The homeowners are supposed to be representing the residents, not condemning them," Hazelton said.
Everyone agrees that the lawsuit has torn the mobile home community apart.
Some residents blame the association for the violation notices. Meetings turn into shouting matches and hardly anyone shows up when the group throws parties.
"I think this is totally crazy this has happened," said Hazelton. He's opted out of the lawsuit, and says about 60 to 100 other homeowners will, too. There are 392 mobile homes in the park.
Moore wonders why Hazelton, an advocate for Largo's mobile home park residents, is not on their side.
"He never stepped up and said, "Hey, folks, look at what's happening to the park,"' Moore said.
