Penticton mobile home park resident facing eviction with no where to go

PENTICTON – One of the residents of a Penticton mobile home park handed an eviction notice last week is facing financial hardship as a result.

While Mervin Rouse admits he hasn't lived in the Delta Mobile Home Park for as long as some of his neighbours, he has a lot at stake financially in his recently renovated trailer.

Rouse, along with his neighbours in the 40-lot park off Airport Road behind Barefoot Beach Resort in the city's south end, found out they were being evicted on May 3. They have to be out by Oct. 1.

“I’m told there is nothing we can do, because we’re on reserve land,” Rouse says.

Rouse says he never would have bought the older model, single-wide trailer if he had known an eviction notice was going to be handed to him a couple of years later. He recently installed a new furnace, fridge and stove, and has upgraded the kitchen flooring, replaced doors and windows and upgraded the plumbing.

He says he pays $500 a month in pad rental, but would have been agreeable to paying more if it had been requested.

He’s going to place an ad on Kijiji in hopes of finding someone to purchase the unit.

“They might take this one, because I’ve renovated it, but I doubt it. Once these units get old, nobody wants them,” he says.

Meanwhile, he's hoping to find rental accommodation somewhere else in Penticton.

“It’s going to be hard to find a similar rent, but nothing can be done,” he says, adding no reason was given for the eviction.

Property Managers Stanmar M.H. Services Ltd. had not responded to a request for comment by deadline.

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