Hundreds of mobile home residents who are fighting eviction in Sweetwater took their battle to court in a fight that has been brewing for months.
Dressed in white, residents of Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park residents sat in a courtroom at the Miami-Dade County Courthouse in downtown Miami, Thursday afternoon.
“We’re all living there. We have 230 trailers there; we’re living there,” said Li’l Abner resident Roberto Guido.
They’re part of a group of about 200 people who are staying at the Sweetwater mobile home community, despite it having closing down in May to make way for new development.
“They didn’t want to give us no justice,” said Guido.
Now a panel of five judges is listening to these residents’ case.
Back in November, the park’s 3,000 residents received notices to vacate their trailers by the end of May.
The land’s owners, CREI Holdings, offered residents a tiered buyout, offering up to $14,000 for those who left the earliest.
Trailer owners said that money was nowhere near enough
“They are hired to get all these people’s trailers for $14,000, $17,000, when he spent money like $60,000, $70,000 on those trailers,” said.
“But there’s a competing property right now,” said David Winker, the attorney representing the residents.
Winker alleged the parks owners broke the law.
“The competing property right is the right of these mobile home residents, under the statute, to buy the land underneath their home,” said Winker. “A statutory provision provides that they be given a notice and an opportunity to buy. As you saw, there’s no dispute: The notice was not given. It comes down to whether it’s a legitimate homeowners association.”
The property owners have denied any wrongdoing.
The next hearing has been scheduled for later in August.