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Trailer park occupants face eviction by owner

J

Jarrek

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THE MISSISSAUGA NEWS
Trailer park occupants face eviction by owner
Residents unhappy with compensation package


MANSOOR KHAN
Apr 11, 2007

Residents of a Cooksville trailer park say they're being forced out of their homes because the property owner wants to build apartments on the site.
The residents, who occupy 47 trailers on the land, say they were caught off guard by the property owner's plan and add that a $3,000 compensation package offered to them isn't enough. Forced to uproot their lives, they say they have no place to go.

In a legal notice given to residents on March 30, lawyers for West End Motors & Trailer Park Ltd., which owns the property, said the tenants must move by March 31, 2008 to make way for a proposed

redevelopment of the site, located on the north side of Dundas St. and just west of Confederation Pkwy.

Jack Ditkofsky, of law firm Blaney McMurtry, confirmed yesterday that the eviction notices had been delivered to residents.

"The compensation offered is in accordance with provincial legislation," said Ditkofsky via e-mail. "These lands are located at the centre of the sixth-largest city in Canada and the current use is not in keeping with the future vision for this area as set out by the City of Mississauga."

The 60-year-old trailer park has been home to several generations of families. Residents say they had a good relationship with longtime owner Anne Jugovich, who recently died.

"There is no other trailer park within 300 kilometres that will accept us unless you are a senior citizen," said resident Candice Garica.

"I would like to see the law amended to the point that it takes into account the expenses that we have to pay to move these trailers to the nearest trailer park."

Several residents who spoke to The News complained that $3,000 in compensation was not enough to relocate, especially since they have invested thousands of dollars into their homes over the years.

Resident Gary Carrier said he has invested $30,000 to make his trailer more comfortable for his family. He and his wife, Colleen, have lived there for 11 years.

"It will cost me at least $6,000 to move this trailer," said Carrier. "Due to the size of the trailer, I need a special permit to bring it on the road, which costs extra."

City of Mississauga Ward 7 Councillor Nando Iannicca, who represents the Cooksville area, did not respond to inquiries about the situation.

Brenda Robertson, Iannicca's administrative assistant, told The News that it will be up to Mayor Hazel McCallion to handle the issue.
 
I was amazed to find out this place existed about four years ago. It was shoved between light industry for so many years, and over time everything around it has been converted to housing (and the apartments looming to the east and west block the sun for most of the day). It's good to hear that this site is being developed though, especially if it's low-mid rent apartments. Maybe it's time to relocate all the tenants to the Ex- better than use of it's perma-parking lot nature :p
 
About ten years ago a similar situation occurred at Twin Pines (then called Cedar Grove), on Dundas Street east of Dixie. Peel Non-profit Housing stepped in and bought the site, and the occupants stayed, with a reasonable degree of security.

Because of the key location of the site at Confederation Parkway, its redevelopment to higher intensity might be a better use, but some place should be found for these people. It's "affordable housing", which governments keep saying should be encouraged and preserved.
 
I have a lot of respect of the people who live in this "Mobile Home" community. The label Trailer park is really disrespectful.

A lot of people don't know the community is located in the heart of Cooksville because it is hidden behind a mechanic shop and surrounded by two fairly new appartment buildings on each side.

I predict that Cooksville will become a hot market for new condo development in the next 10 years as both the City Centre to the north and Port Credit to the south become increasingly expensive and built out.

It is the true heart of Mississauga at the intersection of Hurontario and Dundas, along the city's two major transit lines and in the middle of both the QEW and 403. Not to mention a GO train station and because it was the former downtown all the land is already zoned high-density. You can't get a better location than this!

I would be sad to see it go, and while I resepect the land owners right to develop the land, the current residents should be treated with dignity and respect.

Louroz
 
I have a lot of respect of the people who live in this "Mobile Home" community. The label Trailer park is really disrespectful.

Why is the label "trailer park" disrespectful? Those homes are hardly "mobile."
 
Re: Trailer park ocupants face eviction by owner

Bizorky: We probably need a new term. You're obviously right that these structures are hardly "mobile".

But the term "trailer park" is often used as part of a three-word phrase, with the third word being "trash". In practice, it is disrespectful.
 
Re: Trailer park ocupants face eviction by owner

trailer park = land ownership challenged park.

trailer or mobile home = stationary challenged - differently abled utility hookup connection.



there! that should be PC enough for another 5 years. ;)
 
While "trailer park" may evoke certain images, it is not necessarily linked to the term "trash" if you don't say it. I don't find the use of "trailer park" inherently disrespectful.

The use of "mobile home community" is a good example of PC and why people despise it; like so many PC coinages, the phrase sounds to me as though the usage is trying to hide or cover something up. And inevitably, euphemisms like this take on the negative connotations of the original phrase.

I think the best solution is to call it what it is. Make it clear from context that you are not using the phrase in a derogatory manner.


Edit: typo
 
But the term "trailer park" is often used as part of a three-word phrase, with the third word being "trash". In practice, it is disrespectful.

I can't take any responsibility for the prejudices of other people, but for me "trailer park" is a rather explanatory term having to do with trailers and a place to park them.

As to utilizing the term "mobile home community," I am in agreement with BuildTO.
 
Hey there, bizorky

You wrote:

As to utilizing the term "mobile home community," I am in agreement with BuildTO.

I actually went to check the place out yesterday. Figured it'd be a good time what with the Mayor's glitzy $318.00 a ticket Lifetime Achievement Tribute on Derry Road

457613066_fcb48caee4_o.jpg


and then visit these people on Confederation and Dundas.

I spoke with one of the trailer owners --he was eager to talk and the thing that struck me most is that you and BuildTO are absolutely right, it's a "mobile home community".

It's been there since 1954 and the guy I spoke to grew up there. People know and depend on each other. He pointed out that many are seniors --and all feeling vulnerable and at this point completely unsure of where life will take them.

They have til March 2008 to get out. Me, my goal will be to document this place from now to its disappearance. Another part of old Mississauga gone.

He said it isn't just their homes they lose --also their jobs if they can't afford to find something reasonably close by. It's not like any of them have money for rainy days either.

A few hours later I was up on Derry watching the Glitterazzis in their formal attire roll up in Beemers, Mercedes, limos and even stretch limos to honour their mayor.

Just another Day in Paradise....
 
A year is plenty of notice. Also, the landlord doesn't owe the tenants anything. If the government cares to arrange for something for these people, it should be the government's prerogative.
 
Trailer park occupants face eviction

Gypsies ( real Romanies ) occasionally set up camp in the small English town I grew up in. Their teenaged kids would occasionally turn up for class, when the felt like it, but weren't in the slightest bit interested in studying Richard II or Saint Joan. The boys knew all kinds of things that the rest of us 14 year olds didn't though - how to catch, skin and cook rabbits and all kinds of other practical stuff like that for instance.
 
Re: Trailer park occupants face eviction

afransen TO, you wrote:

Reply &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp Re: Trailer park occupants face eviction by owner

A year is plenty of notice. Also, the landlord doesn't owe the tenants anything. If the government cares to arrange for something for these people, it should be the government's prerogative.

Agreed on both counts. Still. It doesn't make me feel any less sorry for these people.
 
Re: Trailer park occupants face eviction

Thanks for that interesting post (#234), Mississauga Muse.
 
Trailer park to be uprooted (in today's Torstar)

Hey all,

Found this in today's Torstar and figured to just add it to this thread.


Trailer park to be uprooted

May 01, 2007 04:30 AM
Jim Wilkes
Staff Reporter

It's an anachronism in the heart of Mississauga.

Driving along Dundas St. W., west of Confederation Pkwy., it's unlikely you'd spot the entrance to the trailer park where about 100 people live in 47 mobile homes.

A tiny tin community for 60 years within Canada's sixth largest city, it's surrounded by apartment blocks, office buildings and car dealerships, snug in behind a motor shop that's up for lease.

But in less than a year it will all be gone. All the aging trailers along the dirt road that winds through the park. All the people who call it home.

Residents, who own their trailers but lease the land they sit on, have been given until the end of next March to move out so developers can erect more buildings on the prime property.

Folks say they got along well with park owner and landlord Anne Jugovich. But when she died in January, many said they feared her daughter might not want to keep the place going.

On the last day of March this year, residents were handed legal letters giving them a year to leave. If they remove their trailers, they each get $3,000 compensation. If they leave their trailers behind, they'll be demolished.

"This is prime land in the middle of Cooksville, but it's our home," said Linda Banks, 64, wiping away tears that flow easily when she talks about her uncertain future.

She's lived in a trailer for 16 years on a sliver of leased land just a 10-minute walk from the Cooksville GO station and nearby grocery stores and shops.

Residents' monthly rents of between $400 and $500 include taxes, hydro and water. Most residents paid between $40,000 and $60,000 for their trailers and some have spent up to $30,000 more to upgrade them.

"It's so devastating," said Banks, who teaches typing part-time to children with learning disabilities in an office building nearby.

"This was a chance to own a little something. You know what real estate is like. It was a chance to move out here from the city and own your own place.

"Now, I don't know what I'm going to do."

Donnie Durdle is on a residents' committee trying to wangle more money from the trailer park owners.

He said the $3,000 offered so far won't begin to cover the expenses of those who can move their trailers or those who'll be forced to leave them behind. Rent for even small apartments nearby are double what residents have been paying for their leased land.

"With $3,000, what can you do and where can you move? What ... do you want us to cry?"

Durdle, 46, said the nearest trailer park where he could find a vacancy is west of Guelph, but it was accepting only senior citizens or trailers made in 1995 or later. His 35-year-old unit, worth more than $40,000, doesn't make the cut.

"It's sickening," he said. "Why don't they just leave us alone and let us live?"

A lawyer for the trailer park said the money offered is fair.

"If they have complaints, let them complain," said Jack Ditkofsky of the Toronto firm Blaney McMurtry. He said the trailer park doesn't mesh with plans for the area established by the City of Mississauga.

Mayor Hazel McCallion agreed. "As council, we've designated that, down the road, when the landowner decides that they don't wish to run a trailer camp any more, it will be high density. Period."

Ward 7 Councillor Nando Iannicca called the park "a wonderful community" which has caused the city no problems over the years. He said the move for residents would be a "dreadful dislocation."

Eighteen-year resident Rocky Cloutier, 63, said getting his eviction notice was "the saddest day of my life."

"I just put a lot of money to upgrade my trailer," he said. "I planned to live here a long time.

"We should have known something would happen when the landlady died, but for them it's just a business decision. We're losing our homes, we're losing our lifestyle, our way of living for years."

For Veronica Brooks, it's the place where she grew up and where she still returns each day to look after her disabled mother. "My mother has been here 21 years," said the 30-year-old mother of two. "My father died right here in this trailer. It's not much, but he worked for it.

"I don't know where I can put my mother. My townhouse is already full of people.

"Here, we're a community. We all know each other and look after each other. It's home.

"What are we going to do when all this changes?"


Signed,
The Mississauga Muse
 

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