SWEETWATER, Fla. – Friday marks the first deadline for approximately 5,000 Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park residents to move out and receive the highest incentive package.
Local 10′s Layron Livingston was at the Sweetwater mobile home park Friday where demolition crews were seen removing carports and other structures from vacated mobile homes as the park prepares for closure.
Management officials say 605 of the park’s 900 tenants have accepted incentive packages ranging from $16,000 to $20,000 to vacate by Friday.
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Those who remain risk receiving less compensation — or none at all.
Eviction notices were issued last fall, giving residents until May 19 to leave as part of a large-scale redevelopment project.
Many have lived in the community for decades, with some refusing to go without a court order.
“They’re using every single psychological weapon they have against the community,” said Mario Leiva, a 67-year-old resident of Li’l Abner. “They want you to feel that they can demolish your house.”
Now, a group of nearly 200 residents from is pushing back against redevelopment plans that threaten to displace more than 5,000.
The residents, including Leiva, are part of a class-action lawsuit filed against the park’s owners, as well as the city and county officials involved.
The lawsuit claims that the residents were not properly notified about the plans to close the park, which is scheduled to shut down in May. The suit also argues that officials approved the redevelopment without considering where displaced tenants would go.
“The commissioner, the mayor, the millionaire, they have become one single family,” Leiva added, voicing frustration with local leadership. “They’re using every single psychological weapon they have against the community.”
As part of the ongoing redevelopment process, demolition crews have started clearing mobile homes, with plans to relocate them to areas such as Ocala and New Smyrna Beach.
Yenibel De Los Santos, with the demolition company Hamann Demolition, is overseeing the removal of immobile carports, sheds, and planters from the mobile homes.
“It’s very sad,” said De Los Santos. “I just hope they’re able to relocate to another place and make somewhere else home.”
For Leiva and many of his neighbors, the fight isn’t over yet.
“If the judge tells me to leave, I will leave,” he said, but his commitment to the cause remains firm.
