Midfield residents miffed by city letter
Homeless shelter information offered to mobile homeowners facing eviction
Seniors bracing for the closure of their mobile home park are fuming that the city included a homeless shelter on a list of potential future living accommodations sent to residents.
Midfield Mobile Home Park residents received a package dated Sept. 28 that included a three- page list of housing providers in Calgary and a letter inviting residents to a housing information session that was held Thursday afternoon.
The list of potential housing providers included contact information for the Mustard Seed, the Calgary Urban Project Society ( CUPS), the Calgary Homeless Foundation, as well as realtors, seniors’ housing centres and rental websites.
For Midfield residents like Cindy MacDonald, who owns her own mobile home but pays rent for the land it sits on, seeing a homeless shelter on a list detailing where she could move was insulting.
“When I saw it I thought, well at least they know they’re making us homeless. They know they’re kicking us out on the street,” MacDonald said.
John Potts, City of Calgary manager of Land Servicing, said the list was meant to detail the many options available to residents.
“We were just trying to be inclusive," he said.
“We don’t know the situation of individuals and we didn’t want to preclude the opportunity for someone to avail themselves of that, if they thought it might be suitable for them ... We also put market housing on there as well, in reference to how to obtain a mortgage.”
In the spring of 2014, in the midst of a housing crisis, the city announced the inner- city mobile home park would shut down in 2017 because of its aging infrastructure.
The announcement followed more than a decade of uncertainty over Midfield’s future and it included a second blow: citizens of the 16th Avenue N. E. mobile home park would not be moved to the city’s outskirts, a plan previously discussed with tenants.
The city has offered eligible Midfield tenants a lump- sum payment of $ 10,000 and a maximum of $ 10,000 toward the costs incurred to move their mobile home.
But most residents don’t have anywhere to move their homes, and more than a year after they were told the park would eventually close, many say they have no idea where they will move.
Midfield resident Sylvia Zettel described the recent letter residents received, and the accompanying list of potential housing providers, as “crap.”
“Why would we go to the Mustard Seed?” she asked. “We’re not homeless.”
MacDonald said residents also took issue with other aspects of the package — the included letter invited residents to a housing information session on “Thursday October 1st, 2017” that in fact took place on Oct. 1, 2015.
“That’s upset quite a few people," MacDonald said.
"It shows how much the city cares or how much they’ve thought this out.”
Potts said the wrong date was simply a typo.
Few residents attended Thursday’s housing information session, which Potts said was an opportunity for residents to get information and resources so they can begin making plans to transition from Midfield.
“From our perspective, it’s better to be proactive. We didn’t want time to be ticking down and have people working in a constrained time environment," he said.
"We wanted to get the information out there earlier rather than later so people have ample time to make the transition comfortably."