5
December 2012 / January 2013 from
Housing, pg. 4
another home. Compounding the frustration for Clouser is that she just recently moved to Hilltop. Clouser worked in real-estate until she developed a herniated disc and then after a surgery, had to have part of her leg amputated. Once she was able to work again, Clouser could only find a job that paid lower than her old job, she said. At the end of June, Clouser and her family couldn’t afford to live in her home anymore, so she put her house in Port Matilda on the market to move to Hilltop. She said she planned to stay here so she and her husband could pay off her medical bills and save up a little money. When she first moved in, she told the park owner of her troubles, Clouser said. But, she discovered later, while she was in the process of buying a trailer in the park, the park owner was negotiating a sale price for the park. Though Clouser said she asked the park owner for help, she “got nothing from them.” Clouser plans to live with her oldest
daughter and son-in-law, but that’s only if the purchase of their home is finalized. Clouser said she won’t know that until mid-November, and until then, things are up in the air. “I don’t know what to do,” said Clouser. Joyce Shuey has lived in Hilltop Mobile Home Park for ten years with her husband. She moved into the park because when she got a job at Penn State, commuting from the park was easier for her. Shuey said she didn’t plan to retire just yet, but the closure of the park has pushed her into retirement. “It’s not easy working and trying to move, and being forced to find a place real fast,” Shuey said. “It was just like, ‘Find it now, you don’t have a choice.’ It’s stressful.” Shuey will be leaving at the end of the month, moving to Ridge Crest Community, on the other side of Howard. “I was thinking I’d get lucky and this one will stay,” said Shuey. Shuey is one of the few members of the community that are left in the park. “You get to know the neighbors, and they all left. It’s like starting over
Photo by Erin Clark
Juliet Clouser, a resident of Hilltop Trailer Park, sitting on her porch. Clouser just moved into the park in June, just as the park’s owner was negotiating its sale.
“I’m upset that they’ve said they need to work on the problem with not having enough places for affordable housing, and this is the time do to that. They could say no to the rezone.” Anonymous resident of Hilltop Mobile Home Park again,” she said. When Shuey described the atmosphere of the park, she said, “They’re not angry, they’re afraid.”
Many residents don’t know where to go, or they have little options with paychecks too low to afford the expensive apartments in the area, Shuey added. The residents of Hilltop have begun to organize. They now have a Facebook page called “Save Hilltop” and an anonymous resident of Hilltop told Voices that she has been communicating with Resident Owned Communities USA (ROC USA). ROC USA helps manufactured homes communities form resident corporations and then purchase the community site. The resident then noted that making Hilltop Mobile Home Park a community-owned site may be the only easy option for residents with poor credit or
see
Housing, pg. 8