From the Home News Tribune
By March, Karen and Donald Woods and their neighbors in the Warinanco Trailer Park on St. Georges Avenue are expected to vacate their homes to make way for a three-story, 27-unit condominium building on the site.
Residents have formed the Warinanco Trailer Park Association to fight for financial compensation for the trailer homes they will have to leave behind.“If we’re evicted, we’ll lose what we’ve invested. No one here can sell their trailer to get fair-market value. We have nothing in our pocket to relocate. We’re losing our investment,” said Karen Woods, who is especially concerned about residents on Social Security, those who are physically disabled and those who have purchased their trailers within the past two years and will still have mortgage payments once they leave.
“We’re trying to get compensation,” Donald Woods said. “It’s a hardship to everybody.”
“We want money in our pocket so we can move on with our lives,” Karen Woods said.
Maria Silverio, who wasn’t told the property was being sold when she bought her trailer a year and half ago, can’t understand why she has to move out so other people can move into the site. She lives at the trailer park with her husband and two young daughters.
The owner of the trailer park property at 1658 E. St. Georges Ave. said he would like to do what he can, but he gave the residents 18-months notice to relocate.
“I gave them 18 months to find someplace to go. They’ve got six months to go,” said Dominic Caggiano, a city Planning Board member. He said he’s not in a financial position to be able to offer the residents any relocation assistance. “I don’t know why they want something for nothing.”
