COVER FEATURE
by B.C. Kowalski
MOVING OUT A judge ordered Northern Housing Community closed; now residents of the park are scrambling to find a place to live Gloria called on a Monday, sick with worry. She’d only days before learned that she’d soon have to leave the home in which she’d lived for five years. Gloria, along with at least a couple of dozen households in the Northern Housing Community Mobile Home park on Grand Avenue, would have 60 days to move. By court order, the Grand Avenue mobile home park on the north end of Schofield would need to be vacated in that time, giving folks in the park exactly two months to find a new place to live. Moving is never fun, but for residents in the park, it’s the latest chapter of an ongoing saga in which many residents for years wondered for how long they would be able to stay in their homes. The current owners, Sustainable Resources, took over the troubled park after its previous owners agreed to sell it. It was in rough condition under that previous owner, with residents attending Schofield city council meetings to try and glean a sense of whether or not the park would be shut down. Health Department officials came to city meetings armed with numerous documents detailing the many health concerns they had at the park. The city on April 9, 2018 revoked the owner’s license to operate the mobile home park, which marked the first time resident of the park thought they’d need to move. Many left the park around that time, leaving today’s population at about half of what it was. But those owners ultimately sold to Sustainable Resources, and an onsite man-
ager was hired. That manager promised at city meetings to work with city and health officials to help clean the park to city standards. She met with residents at the meeting, and people seemed relieved that a new owner seemed to be poised to make sure those who remained at Northern Housing Community could stay where they are. That didn’t happen, at least according to court documents filed by the city. Attorneys for the city of Schofield say there was some effort early on to address the issues with the park, but eventually those efforts disappeared. Moreover, attorneys for the city allege, the park’s owners never paid to renew the license, and owed back taxes as well. The park also never paid utility bills, and it never paid what it owed the city for razing vacant homes, the complaint alleges. Sustainable Resources disagreed and filed a countersuit, saying they were never made aware they needed to renew their license. That defense didn’t fly with the judge. Michael Moran on Sept. 7 ruled the company could no longer operate the land as a mobile home park. No residents could be left on the property after the 60 day period expires in November. And that leaves people like Gloria wondering exactly where to go next. Right now she pays about $600 in rent at the park. As City Pages illustrated in its feature on affordable housing, or the lack thereof, finding similar rent will be a challenge, especially with so many suddenly looking at once. At least one mobile home park offered a deal to move resident-owned trailers
Ride the Morning Wave to their park, with an incentive for some months of free rent. But that doesn’t help people such as Gloria, who rent their trailers. They will need to find a new place to live, and fast.
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The park’s purpose
Mobile home living might not seem ideal for many people. But for some, it’s the perfect solution to owning their own home or living in a separate unit on a budget. My own grandfather sold his house and lived in a mobile home in the Milwaukee area that primarily catered to seniors, and enjoyed it. And it’s perfect for people such as Gloria. She and her fiance are both on disability. Gloria has numerous health problems, pos-
sibly stemming from her time as a cleaner (though she doesn’t make that claim). That was a different time for her. She’d pull all-nighters on cleaning jobs, sleep an hour, then go back to another job. No one could accuse her of not being a hard worker. She worked “24/7,” she told me. But health intervened. The 56-year-old has fibromyalgia, which comes with a lot of pain. And, she told City Pages, she has three lung conditions. Her fiance no longer works and receives social security. “I don’t know what we’re going to do if I need to live in my vehicle,” Gloria tells me. She tears up at times during the call. “We’re good people, but this is something that happened through no fault of our own. It
