During this year’s holiday festivities, when most families were celebrating, residents in Li’l Abner were stressing about the uncertainty of their future. In late December, 186 homeowners joined a class action lawsuit against not only the property owners CREI Holdings, but also Miami-Dade County and the city of Sweetwater, alleging an array of violations and setting immediate demands from the residents.
The legal complaint seeks $50,000 plus lawyer fees for each homeowner, as well as an injunction stopping the order to vacate. The lawsuit alleges that the park’s ownership violated Florida’s law governing mobile home evictions by raising rents within 90 days of issuing the notice to vacate and by not offering the homeowners association the right of first refusal to purchase the land. Rents had been raised approximately two months before the eviction was issued in November.
The respective attorneys also contend that CREI Holdings mislead homebuyers, as they had told homebuyers that there was no imminent development due to the property, hence homebuyers continued buying up until the weeks before the notice to vacate. Miami Dade county and the city of Sweetwater, the attorneys argue, violated state law by approving CREI’s application for processes related to rezoning without ensuring that homeowners could find another place to live. In Florida law, municipalities cannot take actions that would result in the removal of mobile homeowners without first determining that viable alternative housing options exist.
Residents, meanwhile, are facing many hardships day-to-day. Fair amounts of residents have already left often with nowhere to go, squatters have begun moving into vacant homes, and many residents may have been illegally exposed to asbestos by demolitions conducted without any asbestos inspection. These squatters have been conveniently ignored by the property owners and the city, likely purposefully to make residents uncomfortable. The four demolitions that occurred were halted after an inspection at the site and found they had not followed proper protocol regarding asbestos. This negligence has the potential to affect 5,000 residents, including the elderly and young children in the community which make up about 25% of Sweetwater’s population.
These have not been the only blows to residents’ morale. Since this situation began in November, police have been actively harassing the community, even arresting two residents. One of those arrests involved the elderly community leader Vivian Hernandez who, while at the rent office, had the police called on her for arguing. When police arrived, she was subsequently slammed after sitting down and refusing to leave. Since this incident, Vivian has filed a lawsuit against Sweetwater police alleging police brutality. She was hospitalized only a few weeks after the arrest incident for a stroke, the first of her life and has suffered constant head pain which she says her doctor attributed to that very incident.
The Peoples Housing Council supports the struggle of the people of Sweetwater as they continue to suffer displacement due to the greed of corporate property owners.