A visit to a manufactured home community in Chapmanville, West Virginia, by the Logan County Health Department quickly turned into a crisis.
Community landlord George Evans told residents of the Caroline Estates Mobile Home Park on January 29th that they needed to be out of the community by January 31st because the Health Department found issues with electrical hook-ups and other health violations.
According to Tri State Update, this put community residents into a panic, with many saying they had no place to go.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do. I mean I’ve got two kids. My son had trouble at school yesterday just thinking about all of this,” said Joda Farley, who has lived in the community for 7 years.
“That was the situation when I moved in the place and he knew that. I had no place to go and I needed a place to live so there it is,” said resident Greg Williams.
While the violations may have come to a surprise to residents, Evans appears to have known about them all along.
Inquiries to the Logan County Health Department uncovered that issues at the community had been going on for years, and a health inspector confirmed that after dozens of violations that Evans’ license to own and operate a manufactured home community was revoked on January 1st.
Residents at the community said that Evans collected rent in early January, even though he was aware of his license being revoked.
“You have all of these violations that need to be corrected, why not let us know and lets correct them? Instead you wait until you have 10 families set out? It’s not right,” said Williams.
Joda Farley owns her home. Without a place to move it, she’s taking a “wait and see” approach to what to do next.
“It is the only thing I can do. I don’t have a place or the means to try to move it. I mean I just have to ride it out and see how far it goes,” said Fairley.
Per Tri State Update, as of January 31st, all residents living in the community had not moved out yet and some are in the process of finding other places to live, and Evans has not returned calls for comment. Inquires from the Daily Business News have not received responses as of the time of this article. ##
(Image credits are as shown above.)
Submitted by RC Williams to the Daily Business News for MHProNews.
