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Mobile home residents encouraged to organize

A group called FAIR plans its first meeting to offer help for those facing sale of their parks, rent hikes or reduced services.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published December 11, 2005

SOUTH PASADENA - Long ridiculed or ignored, residents of mobile home parks are now forming themselves into a political force to protect their homesteads.

"If we organize, we've got some voting power," said Dianne Miller, the president of the homeowners association at Causeway Village, the South Pasadena mobile home park that, like others in the region, is being considered for redevelopment. "We could, through our numbers, say a lot."

Miller and others from Pinellas County and around the state will hold the first meeting Monday in Venice of the nascent Floridians Against Injustice to Residents of Mobile/Manufactured Homes, or FAIR. Once living on separate islands of mobile homes, FAIR's members aim to unite what the group says are 1.3-million Florida residents who live in what are often disparaged as trailers.

As undeveloped property becomes more scarce in Pinellas and other areas, mobile home parks are seen as ripe land ready to be turned into condominiums and townhomes. Miller's park was sold this year to a Tampa developer, while Harbor Lights, Golden Lantern, Bay Pines and other parks face similar fates.

"If your park owner has said "I will never sell the park!' think again, especially if you are on the water," reads a flier FAIR is using to recruit park residents from all over Florida. "If enough money is offered to the park owner, the sale is probably imminent."

When a park is sold, residents have few options and sometimes stand to lose significant investments because some mobile homes can cost as much as fixed structures. State law entitles residents to at most $6,000 from a trust fund to pay for moving a home, even though the cost is often higher, there are fewer parks all the time to which to move a home, and it is sometimes illegal for older homes to be transplanted at all. The fund that pays for moving homes can also pay to buy the owners out, but that amount runs only to $2,750, which Miller says is trivial when some homes cost six figures to buy.

Existing law says there must be available affordable housing before a park can close, but FAIR says the law is vague and the Legislature is trying to make it weaker. Miller said there are even efforts afoot to remove residents' right of first refusal to buy a park up for sale, a condition that isn't always viable anyway because of the huge prices some of the parks are asking.

Speakers at the FAIR meeting will include Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, Rep. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, Tampa attorney Joseph Magri, lobbyist Travis Moore, Anthony Pinzone, president of the homeowners association at Bay Indies, the park in Venice where the meeting will take place, and Leo Plenski, the president at the Bay Pines mobile home park.

Plenski, who has been actively working to create FAIR for seven months, said the group will offer education, resources and tools to help residents facing sale of their parks, but also those dealing with rent increases or cuts in services. The organization also aims to teach members about using their political clout to protect their interests. Never seen as a single voting block, Plenski says FAIR members are coalescing.

"If somebody was going to steal your house and throw you out into the street, wouldn't that motivate you to vote?" he asked. "You can't believe the fear in these people."

Plenski said FAIR already has a network of 100 parks throughout the state, from Venice to Jacksonville. The FAIR flier says the group plans to hire lobbyists and pressure all levels of government, as well as swing elections.

"We're not going to go away," Plenski said.

[Last modified December 11, 2005, 02:15:36]