Trailer park meeting format called ‘a zoo’

J. Craig Anderson

Tuesday, March 7, 2006 | 7:44 a.m.

Bob Varallo was expecting a seat at the negotiating table, not a ticket to the zoo.

Varallo, who represents the interests of local mobile home park residents, said he was shocked to learn of Clark County's plans to hold open meetings to iron out an agreement between park owners and tenants over the rights of those affected by park closures.

"I don't see what they're going to accomplish," said Varallo, president of the Nevada Association of Manufactured Home Owners. "It's just insane."

The two scheduled meetings are in lieu of an 18-month moratorium on mobile home park redevelopment proposed by county officials, which was placed on hold in February because of concerns that such a move might be illegal.

The meetings are scheduled for 5 p.m. March 13 and 9 a.m. March 14 at Winchester Community Center, 3130 McLeod Drive. Both will cover the same issues.

County Commissioner Myrna Williams, who proposed the moratorium, said the purpose of the meetings is to reach a consensus between park owners and residents on ways to prevent more homelessness and financial devastation as parks shut down, forcing tenants to move out.

"Do I think it will happen? I hope so," Williams said.

But Varallo said park owners and residents were expecting organized meetings in which representatives from both sides could negotiate complex issues such as how much compensation tenants should receive if the park they live in closes.

Instead, the county is offering a free-for-all in which questions and criticism from scared and angry residents are likely to dominate the discussion, he said.

"That, to me, is a gaggle," Varallo said. "It's a zoo."

During the past year, 13 mobile home parks have closed, displacing many low-income, elderly and disabled residents.

State law requires the owners of closing parks to pay residents to move their mobile homes within 50 miles. Most area parks, however, will not accept older homes, and some homes are so dilapidated they would fall apart if moved.

The law also requires park owners to pay residents fair market value for homes that cannot be moved, but many mobile homes are not worth much to anyone except the people who live in them. To make matters worse, some residents facing a forced move still owe thousands in mortgage payments.

As a result, park closures to redevelop land for upscale residential communities and other uses have left many lower-income residents without a home and in massive debt.

Joan Bickers, a former resident of the now-closed Stadium Mobile Home Park, 6700 E. Russell Road, said she is being hounded by creditors for $9,000 that they claim she still owes on her home.

Bickers, 76, lived in the park for 10 years with her son and granddaughter, but now she is in a tiny apartment - alone.

"I can no longer provide financially a home for the three of us to live together in," she said. "What good has living an honest, decent life done for me?"

County spokeswoman Stacy Welling said officials determined that open meetings would be the most effective means to arrive at a solution.

"I think that they thought doing it publicly would be the better way," she said.

Sunrise Pointe Mobile Home Park resident Peter Pryor said he agrees that all park residents should have a say in the matter, but he is concerned that the meetings could become repetitive and unproductive.

"Everybody's going to keep asking the same questions over and over again," he said.

Pryor, who received notice in December that Sunrise Pointe is being sold to an investment company, said he does not think any meeting will result in a fair deal for residents.

"We'll be living in a cardboard box pretty soon," he said.

County planning manager Irene Navis, who will moderate the meetings, said she will try to make them as efficient and productive as possible.

Navis said the discussions could lead to further negotiations among a smaller group of representatives if the commission decides to take that step.

"We don't even know what we're negotiating over yet," she said.