WILX-TV, Lansing, tells MHProNews that Michael Swearinger, one former resident, finally feels like he’s getting his footing after 12 months of bouncing around between the homes of friends and even homeless shelters. He doesn’t own anything to sit on, a year after being forced out of the Life O’Riley Mobile Home Park last February. Now, he’s just glad he has his own apartment, although it contains no furniture –only a small radio and a borrowed air mattress on the floor.
“What seems like basic to some people, to me it’s unreal,” said Swearinger. “This is the first place I’ve had of my own.” Residents were given 10 days to get their things and get out before the park was closed for good.
“None of us knew this was coming,” said Swearinger. “We were used to things not being done about it. It was supposed to be a temporary stepping stone. I just didn’t get a chance to keep stepping.”
The City of Lansing still has regular contact with a number of former tenants, said Joan Johnson, the city’s director of human services. “The city was blamed for displacing residents although we knew that this was in everyone’s best interests,” she said. “I mean, if I had a dog, I wouldn’t have allowed my dog to live in some of those trailers, and you had babies out there, and you had senior citizens.”
Lansing shelled out $80,000 to put the displaced residents in motels after the closure, and helped others find housing. However, Johnson says she wishes the owners of Life O’Riley would have been fined more than $10,000. She calls it a slap on the wrist.
“We can’t allow this to happen again,” she said. “It sends the wrong message that we don’t care about people, and when you expose people to the elements that they were exposed to in that environment, the mold and whatever else was there, we’re paying for it at the other end. And again it’s not the humane thing to do.”
Lawmakers like Rep. Andy Schor (D-Lansing) are trying to make sure there are no Life O’Riley repeats at other manufactured home communities. He has introduced legislation that would provide for quicker condemnations and subsequent fixes. The State of Michigan would have to let residents know the results of those inspections. The bill had widespread support in both chambers last year, but there wasn’t enough time for the two versions to be reconciled.
“What happened in that park was wrong on so many levels. When I see this horrible situation, I see that it could have been avoided and state policy could have helped to avoid that,” said Schor. “I would rather do things proactively than having to address a terrible situation, and I would hate for this to happen to somebody else.”
Lansing Director of Planning and Neighborhood Development Bob Johnson says nothing has been done to fix up Life O’Riley, although the owners have said in the past they hoped to have people move back.
Johnson says the problems that exist wouldn’t be a hard thing to fix for “owners who were serious” about the manufactured home business.
In the meantime, the City of Lansing is pursuing legal action against the owners of Life O’Riley. Johnson says the park will not be reopening any time soon. ##
(Photo Credit: Lansing State Journal)
Article submitted by Sandra Lane to – Daily Business News – MHProNews.
