UPDATE @ 11:06 p.m.
Residents of a Fairborn mobile home park are speaking out after they were told they have less than six months to find new housing before the land the park sits on is sold to the city.
The City of Fairborn has offered each household $2,500 to move but homeowners say the amount isn’t enough.
“No trailer park that I’ve ever talked to will take a trailer that’s more than 10 years old. And guess what? Mine’s 30 years old,” Glenn Acres resident Pat Collins said.
Collins said she’s found the cost to move her mobile home comes in around $4,000 and said there is nowhere residents of the park can move to in Fairborn.
Fairborn City Manager Rob Anderson said a letter signed by McNamee and McNamee, PPL in which residents were given 180 days to vacate the land was sent without the city’s knowledge.
"We are not the cold-blooded people that that letter tends to make us out as,” Anderson said.
The city does not intend to purchase the land until all tenants find new places to live, according to Anderson.
"We're not trying to force them out of Fairborn We're not trying to force them to somewhere they don't want to be. We'll need to do a little more research on our end,” Anderson said.
EARLIER REPORT (June 5)
Residents at the Glenn Acres Mobile Home Park in Fairborn have been served notices to vacate the property pending the sale of the land to the city of Fairborn “for a use other than as a manufactured mobile home park.”
According to a letter signed by McNamee & McNamee, PLL, residents have 180 days to vacate the property.
MAP: Where is news happening in the Miami Valley?
“Obviously relocating your manufactured home and belongings will entail significant expense,” the letter read. “In order to ease that transition the City of Fairborn has agreed to provide you with $2,500 in financial assistance upon the condition that your relocation is accomplished no later than 180 days after you receive this notice.”
Fairborn Assistant City Manager Michael Gebhart said, “the city has been engaged in negotiations to purchase the park,” however, no deal has been finalized.
“It will probably likely be September or October before we would close if everything goes through,” Gebhart said.
TRENDING: Woman, 20, loses legs following I-75 crash
Patricia Collins has owned a mobile home on the property since 1986 and said the notice is leaving her with no options for a place to live.
“This is not a time that I need to be worrying about where I’m going to live,” said Collins, who added that she is dealing with being handicap and having heart issues. “At this point, it looks like I’m going to have to move into a tent.”
The mobile home park, located on Zimmerman Road, has approximately 12 mobile homes on it and six of those are still occupied by residents.
Sheldon Macaske, LLC, currently owns the mobile home park.
Gebhart said if the city does ultimately buy the land that they will provide the $2,500 in financial assistance to the existing residents.
“The city in purchasing or if purchasing the property would make available $2,500 to each property owner…to help with their move,” the assistant city manager said.