Residents of a small mobile home park in B.C.’s Okanagan say they feel powerless as they brace for their electricity to be shut off on April 10.
About 30 people live in the Crown Villa Mobile Home Park near Vernon. Some have lived there for nearly four decades.
“This is how it’s going to end. And I think it’s really sad and cruel,” said the site’s owner Carol Goldstone in an interview from her home at the Crown Villa park.
Numerous electrical safety hazards, identified since 2021, necessitate the shutoff, said Technical Safety B.C., the organization that oversees high-risk technical safety systems and equipment on behalf of the provincial government.
It distributed a letter to Crown Villa residents in December notifying them of the planned shutdown.
The letter states power will remain off after April 10 until all corrections are completed.
The cost for repairs to the electrical system has been quoted at about $200,000.
Goldstone said she can’t afford it.
She also said she can’t afford to pay the $55,000 in fines that have been issued by the Residential Tenancy Branch for failing to make the upgrades. Those fines have now been passed on to a collection agency.
“I suppose I should have been upping the rent and building some type of contingency fund or something,” said Goldstone.
Goldstone and her late husband took over operations of the park nearly four decades ago after her father died. She became the site’s sole caretaker when her husband passed away 12 years ago.
In the 37 years that she has been living on the property, pad rent for residents has never been increased, and remains at less than $300 per month.
“I wasn’t a businesswoman. This is what I got thrown into because of circumstances in the family.”
Goldstone added that some of the park’s tenants have not paid any rent for several years.
She said she now understands that allowing people to live with low or no rent has negatively affected the site’s other residents because she can’t afford the repairs.
“I know they’re frightened and probably, you know, they blame me because they’re afraid. I can understand their fear because I have the same fear,” said Goldstone.
“It’s going to be suffering for all of us.”
She too will lose power.
Most residents at Crown Villa own their mobile homes and plan to stay put. Some cite financial constraints associated with moving their trailer or selling a mobile home that is not connected to electricity.
Others say they are staying because they love the location.
“We’re all clinging to our homes because nobody is ready to go. We’re all terrified,” said Lisa Anderson.
She has lived at Crown Villa with her husband and son for over a decade.
“Everything that we own is in that trailer. We don’t have extra money,” said Anderson.
In preparation for next week’s power shutoff, the Anderson household has been purchasing bottled water since the electrical water pumps for the site’s well will stop working.
They plan to buy large batteries that can be charged with solar power, and will bathe and do laundry at her relative’s house.
Other residents, like Phil Tomkulak, have no choice but to leave.
Tomkulak has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and relies on a continuous-flow oxygen concentrator, powered by electricity, to breathe.
He is moving into an apartment and does not yet know what he will do with the mobile home that is soon to be without power.
“This place I had planned on being my last,” said Tomkulak, about the home that he purchased with his late wife.
In a statement, the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs said landlords are required by law to keep their manufactured home parks in reasonable repair. It noted the Crown Villa Mobile Home Park has a heavily-used, undersized and aging electrical system. It also said Goldstone has failed to provide evidence of efforts to secure financing for the repairs.
Homeowners who experience damage or losses due to landlord negligence, like having to move, can apply to the Residential Tenancy Branch for compensation from the landlord.
