Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Displaced mobile home residents will need help

Aging west Pasco mobile home parks are becoming redevelopment targets, potentially boosting tax bases for local governments, but eliminating affordable housing options for low- and moderate-income residents.

It's a saga that has played out elsewhere in Florida as park owners are motivated to sell by skyrocketing land values and higher insurance premiums.

It could happen frequently in Pasco. Nearly 22,000 mobile homes in Pasco County sit atop rented lots. Certainly not all of the 95 licensed mobile home parks in the county are candidates for sale, but the trend has started along the heavily populated coastal areas.

Twice last year, the New Port Richey City Council approved plans to turn mobile home parks into upscale townhome projects. The 95 homes at the Walden Pond Mobile Home Park at Palmetto Road and Oelsner Street will be replaced by 118 condominiums and townhomes. Ditto for the Deep Lagoon Mobile Home Park at Green Key Road where developers plan 72 townhomes on 9 acres.

In Port Richey, the nondescript Port Richey Mobile Home Park still has a sign offering to rent mobile homes. The park has the hustle and bustle of U.S. 19 on its east side, but the picturesque Port Richey Waterfront park and the extended view of Miller's Bayou just to the west.

No need for a rezoning here. The land use designation already allows commercial use. The park sold in June 2005 and residents have been told to find another place to live. As St. Petersburg Times staff writer Camille C. Spencer reported, developers hope to build a hotel and restaurant on the 5-acre site overlooking the waterfront.

"It's going to be coming. Just go up U.S. 19, and those will be the first parks gone," observed George Romagnoli, Pasco's community development director.

The county and cities shouldn't be ill-prepared once the trend escalates, particularly considering the affordable housing issues already confronting the county. Some apartment complexes are converting to condominiums, and the county has a yearlong waiting list of 200 needy people seeking financial help to rehabilitate rundown homes.

Mobile home owners often have their life savings invested in their homes and cannot afford to pay market rates for other housing. Meanwhile, the Florida Mobile Home Act says no local government may rezone a mobile home park before first determining that "adequate mobile home parks or other suitable facilities exist for the relocation of the mobile home owners." Unfortunately, the Legislature failed to define "adequate" or "suitable" or explain how local governments are supposed to find such housing in a soaring real estate market.

Given that lack of guidance, Pinellas County came up with its own plan. It approved an ordinance two months ago that offers rental assistance and one-on-one counseling to qualified mobile home residents who can't find affordable housing after their parks are rezoned.

The money comes from developers who must deposit housing assistance into a county account if they cannot assure commissioners other housing options are available for displaced residents.

It is hardly a cure-all, but it is a step in the right direction. Pasco would be wise to begin considering its own steps before it finds some of its residents out on the street.

[Last modified February 19, 2006, 01:09:21]