PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Lakeside Park Estates residents are looming eviction as their mobile home park was purchased by Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian telecaster.
With plans to close the park, residents and supporters showed up Thursday morning to the Broward County Commission’s meeting to voice their fears while partnering with the grassroots group, Florida Rising.
Residents were first notified that they had to leave their homes in March, but the county granted them an extension to the end of the year.
But many of the elderly residents who need government housing assistance and have serious health issues say that’s not enough time, and without more help from the county, they’re sure to be left homeless.
One of those residents at Lakeside Park Estates, Laurie Laney, told Local 10 News, “none of us have faced this type of thing before. We don’t know how to be homeless.”
“If they just give us time -- more time -- we need until at least June of 2023,” the woman said.
The Broward County attorneys recently negotiated a deal that compensates residents a few thousand dollars for their mobile homes. But residents say the offer isn’t enough.
Some of these residents have lived in their mobile homes for decades.
According to Carlos Naranja, a member of Florida Rising, “Florida is the least affordable state in the country and Broward County is having mass displacement supply out-of-town corporations such as TBN.”
“They say we have to vacate on Dec. 15. What Christmas we will have?” resident Martha Silva said.
There were no comments made by a TBN representative ahead of Thursday’s commission meeting.