Brandon trailer park residents closer to eviction

More than 140 residents at a trailer court in Brandon are a step closer to being evicted after an application to rezone the land cleared the first hurdle at Brandon's city council meeting Monday night.

The developer who owns the land at Kingsway Kort wants to rezone it for highrise apartments.

Councillor Garth Rice was the only one who voted against the rezoning.

"I'm certainly feeling for those people that are being displaced," he said. "The opportunity to have that kind of affordable housing in the city of Brandon is very few and far between and getting less all the time."

Residents received eviction notices Monday night as well.

Sweeping her porch, Susan Klyne said she takes pride in her home, where she's lived for 14 years, and she's in shock with the thought of leaving.

"You go numb," she said. "I feel I'm going to be homeless." 

She's among residents who are worried their trailers are too old to move, and not worth selling.

But even if they could, every trailer park in Brandon is full, and has been for close to 20 years.

Klyne's neighbour, Tamara Pangborn, is angry. 

"I don't have five or six thousand dollars, whether it is the moving costs to move our trailer, there's nowhere to go...We're not going to move to another city or town. My husband has a full time job here."

She said she can't walk away from a home she's still paying mortgage on.

Pangborn is currently not working after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

"It's almost like now cancer is over here, and the trailers over (there), so I have to put my health in the back to try do deal with this," she said.

Pangborn said moving isn't an option and she's fighting back.

She has started a campaign called 'Occupy Kingsway' and launched an online petition on Facebook.

Public hearings will be held this fall.

But rezoned or not, Kingsway Kort residents will have to be out by March 2014 because the land has already been sold.

The developer did not return CBC's request for comment.