Trailer park residents in Florida City being told they must find new place to live
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The property has been sold and they have until Wednesday to get out.
Residents don’t think they have been given enough notice, but the mayor said they have known this was going to happen for months.
The people living there are mostly low-income, long-term residents, and most have no idea where to go.
“We have nowhere to go,” said resident Cynthia Thomas. “This is our home. This is where we live.”
Residents have been told they need to get off the land by Wednesday or they would be trespassing.
Once he died, I had to leave the house. I was left with absolutely nothing,” she said.
With no family or support system, the woman had no choice but to sleep in the park. She was new to homelessness and she didn’t know what to do. Her situation quickly took a toll on her health.
“It gave me a pain in my chest and my back and I went to the hospital, she said.
At Mount Sinai hospital, she confided in the nurses and staff. They were able to connect her with homeless services, and the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust quickly stepped in.
Gregory Colemon has been without a home for almost three months.
“We’re walking, trying to get food,” he said. “Trying to find a safe place to lay, and something warm to wear while we’re out here sleep.”
Colemon saw a member of the Cold Weather Team who’s out to make sure people will be warm ahead of Tuesday night.
“I stopped him because everybody told me that when you see the van, you stop him and talk to him,” Colemon said. “They can probably help you get into the hotel and shelter because you have to do the quarantine thing. I don’t mind, as long as I’m out the cold.”
14 million American households brace for impact as eviction protections expire
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. / CNN John Ayers talked with pride as he listed the things he used to be able to afford as an insurance agent, pre-pandemic: $2,000 monthly rent, hundreds of dollars in prescriptions for his severe arthritis and diabetes, and even a regular Uber driver, known as Fast Ice, that would take him to the grocery store in a black Mercedes-Benz van.
COVID-19 has upended Ayers’ life.
“Fortunately, I haven’t gotten the virus, but I’ve fallen victim to it,” he said.
His eyes filled with tears as he described losing his job early last summer, exhausting his savings paying for rent, medications and utility bills, and getting slapped with an eviction notice.
South Florida set to face eviction avalanche hawaiinewsnow.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from hawaiinewsnow.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.