PHOENIX — Will Phoenix protect residents of three mobile home parks who could be evicted within weeks?
After months of debate, the City Council is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the next steps
City staff's top recommendations do not include helping the residents stay in their mobile homes. The focus is on helping them find a new place to live.
The more than 120 families who live at the three mobile home parks are getting the boot. The dirt they lease for their mobile homes is worth more to the landowners as a higher-priced development.
Amid a historic housing shortage that's fueling record-high rents and home prices, the mobile homeowners say they'll have a tough time finding the cost equivalent of their housing.
The City Council, committees and staff have wrestled with ways to help the mobile homeowners, including keeping them in their homes.
At a council meeting earlier this month, four of the nine council members advocated for a four-point plan to help keep the residents in their homes.
According to city staff, the key piece of the plan - rezoning the mobile home parks - would trigger a complex bureaucratic process and expose the city to landowners' claims for financial reimbursement.
The first eviction starts April 1. The last eviction will be on May 28.
City staff has recommended "immediate" steps to help residents.
The city plan would assign case managers to help residents find a new place to live.
Federal dollars would be spent on rental assistance and utility deposits.
Emergency housing vouchers would be offered.
Residents of other mobile home parks would be alerted that this could happen to them, too.
The City Council meets at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at 200 W. Jefferson St.
You can watch or comment on the meeting here.
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