Plan to aid evicted Midfield residents fails to win support for council debate
A rookie councillor’s five-part plan to make things right for the residents of Midfield Mobile Home Park failed to gain the single vote needed to even be debated on the council floor on Monday.
Ward 11 Coun. Jeromy Farkas’s pitch, which included increased compensation for evicted residents of the city-owned mobile home park on 16th Avenue N.E., died without being debated by his colleagues. “I knew that it was going to be an uphill battle,” a self-described disappointed and shocked Farkas said after the vote.
“Frankly though, I wasn’t afraid of losing. I was afraid of living with myself if I didn’t try. I’m glad that I tried,” he added.
After introducing his plans to colleagues behind closed doors, council came back into public session and Farkas unveiled to the public a five-part motion.
It asked for increased payment for residents, continued support for tenants finding alternate homes, a city report with lessons learned in the wake of the closure, the continuation of a tenant package for eligible residents, and a release of any plans for the future of the Midfield lands.
No one on council seconded Farkas’s pitch, so it was not debated.
The details released Monday came after Farkas hosted a press conference Friday to announce his solution for evicted Midfield residents, then told media due to the legal nature of the conversation his multi-part proposal was confidential.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi suggested Monday that perhaps Farkas would have been more successful if he brought forward the plan “without all of that extra noise.”
“There are always issues to discuss on things like this, but there are also ways to discuss these issues. I think that is what we learned today,” Nenshi said.
Farkas said while he expected some parts of his motion to be a “slam-dunk,” council’s desire to not even entertain his motion wasn’t a personal slight.
“Council has spoken and despite the fact I disagree, as a whole, we’ve made our decision.”
Three years ago, about 400 residents occupying Midfield’s 183 trailer pads were shocked when they received letters informing them the city was closing the park — located on highly desirable inner-city land close to schools, parks and amenities — at the end of September 2017 because of aging water and sewer pipes.
When residents received the eviction letters in May 2014, they were also told a previously discussed plan for the city to build a new mobile home park for them on Calgary’s outskirts wouldn’t be going ahead.
Tenants were offered a lumpsum payment of $10,000 to leave, counselling services and a maximum of $10,000 toward the cost of moving their mobile home — compensation many residents blasted as not nearly enough.
The mobile home park falls in Coun. Druh Farrell’s ward, and she said in council chambers Monday that the city is holding several abodes with Calgary Housing Company to make sure no resident of Midfield will be homeless.
“There are currently five tenants who have (not) yet found alternative housing,” Farrell said
Farrell and Nenshi said the city has no plans for Midfield park at this time, though Farkas expressed skepticism. “At present, Calgarians have no way to know for sure, given that there wasn’t any formal release of the information,” he said.