'What can we do?' Whitehorse mobile homes kicked off site
Home owners told to leave and pay relocation but cannot find land
Residents of a Whitehorse mobile home park are facing imminent eviction, and some say their homes are not actually very mobile.
Eviction notices were handed out almost a year ago at the Casa Loma park, but most residents still haven't found a place to move. Some homes could be demolished with no compensation for the owners.
The area is not zoned for a mobile home park, and the park owners now want to use it for something else.
"Basically everyone is up in the air, nobody knows where they're going. There's no land available," says Ann Rudniskim, who bought a mobile home at the park just over two years ago.
She recently paid for renovations thinking it would last many more years. But now, she doesn't know what will happen.
Part of the problem for many residents is that their homes cannot be easily or cheaply moved to other mobile home parks.
Tenants describe an informal arrangement they had with the landlord which allowed them to build extensions and additions. Those extensions — such as a oil-heated addition on Rudniskim's trailer — are not allowed in Whitehorse's mobile home parks because they're considered permanent structures.
But the mobile homes don't meet Whitehorse's standards for residential construction, so they also can't be moved to residential-zoned land either.
At least one home in Casa Loma is so rickety it won't survive being moved at all. It will likely be flattened with no compensation paid to the owner.
While they figure out plans for evictions, owners in Casa Loma are still paying a monthly pad rent fee of $350.
'Stressful and heartrending'
Debra Jonasson paid $80,000 for her Casa Loma mobile home only four years ago.
She says the eviction letter was unexpected and just "showed up in our mailbox with no warning."
This is low-cost housing. There's a reason lots of people are living here. They don't have extra money. They don't have options they can't just walk away and leave it- Debra Jonasson, facing eviction from Casa Loma park
"It was one of those horrible feelings in the stomach because you're not sure what will happen. You don't know where you're going to go," she said.
Jonasson said she's been able to find available land outside the City of Whitehorse, but she knows others don't have that option.
"This is low-cost housing. There's a reason lots of people are living here. They don't have extra money. They don't have options. They can't just walk away and leave it," she said.
Informal agreement with landlord left tenants 'wide open'
Residents of Casa Loma initially considered legal action, but said they were advised against it because they weren't likely to succeed.
A letter circulated by the Casa Loma owners' association says "one of the items against the residents is that there is no formal rental agreement with the tenants, and any that had one, it was a very simple month-to-month rental agreement leaving us wide open to this eviction."
Adding to the frustration is that two mobile homes have been sold in the last two years. New tenants say they weren't told of future plans for rezoning and wouldn't have moved if they'd known.
The tenants of Casa Loma have met with city and territorial government officials to discuss their situation. They've also reached out to owners of other mobile parks in the city.
CBC is attempting to reach the park owners for comment.