FLORIDA CITY, Fla. ā The clock is ticking for residents of a mobile home park in Florida City.
The property has been sold and they have until Wednesday to get out.
Residents donāt think they have been given enough notice, but the mayor said they have known this was going to happen for months.
The people living there are mostly low-income, long-term residents, and most have no idea where to go.
āWe have nowhere to go,ā said resident Cynthia Thomas. āThis is our home. This is where we live.ā
Residents have been told they need to get off the land by Wednesday or they would be trespassing.
āSome of them, they canāt move,ā said community activist Carmen Tejada. āSome of them have vehicles that are too old to move so that means they have to abandon their home. With a six-day notice.ā
Florida City Mayor Otis Wallace said there were three public meetings with him at City Hall in October to answer any of the residentās questions, and the mayor said he told them theyād have until at least after Christmas to find a new place to live.
But many people say, after rumors of the sale for years, they didnt believe it.
āThey told us they were going to sell the park but never told us specifically when they did,ā said resident Yamil Soltura. āThe only thing is they put a banner up there at the front that said the park is sold, no more long-term stays.ā
Either way, many of the people living there are elderly, ill or canāt afford to go anywhere else, and feel theyāve been duped.
Mayor Wallace said while he feels for them, there is a contract in place to sell the site for millions of dollars, and taxpayers canāt afford to keep paying for the land.
āThe city is willing to be reasonable,ā he said. āThe letter sent by our attorney was to spur them to action. The city is really serious, the jig is up, itās time to start finding a place to stay.ā
On Monday, representatives from the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust and from Camillus House came to speak to residents and give whatever help they could.
Local 10 News was also told an attorney is expected to file an injunction sometime Monday to stop the evictions.