Homeowners in the Riverside Trailer Park in Brackendale, on the Squamish Nation Seaichem Reserve, are shocked and upset after being given one year to find another place to live.
At a meeting at Totem Hall Wednesday night Squamish Nation representatives told the 19 trailer owners and their families they have until Sept. 30, 2017 to find another place to put their mobile homes.
“People got pretty irate. Some people got up and left. There’s people crying,” said park resident Tom Green after the meeting. “People were asking, ‘What are you doing,' and ‘How can you do this?’”
About 30 residents were in attendance for the meeting, which lasted about one hour, Green said.
For the next year, owners will not have to pay their $400 a month pad fees, according to a Nation press release.
Existing tenants are eligible to receive a payment of $9,600 if they move by Dec. 31, according to the Nation, and $4,800 if they leave between Jan. 1 - March 31, 2017.
“The tenants have the option of removing their mobile homes or any other leasehold improvements before the end of that one year period at their own expense, and would each be eligible to receive up to a maximum of $9,600 upon vacating the reserve,” the news release states.
Provincial laws for mobile home parks do not apply to this park on Seaichem Indian Reserve No. 16, according to the Nation.
“The Squamish Nation is dedicated to treating all tenants fairly during the one year, rent-free, notice and relocation period,” said Chris Lewis, Squamish Nation councillor in the release. “Existing homes will be maintained on a case to case basis over the next year and tenants will be informed of all details as they become available.”
The trailer home park has been embroiled in controversy in recent years after tenants received a letter in 2012 from the Squamish Nation claiming their landlord Bill Williams, who had run the park for decades, had no right to operate the park and homeowners were basically trespassing on the land. The Squamish Nation took over operation of the park.
Since then, the homeowners have been unable to sell their trailers.
The Squamish Nation “has no documentation regarding the arrangements made between these tenants and the Williams family,” the release states.
According to the Nation, the park has to close due in part to “health and safety concerns.” To upgrade the park, which opened in the 1960s, and connect it to District of Squamish water and sewer infrastructure, would cost upwards of $500,000, according to the release. The Nation therefore concluded the park “was not a viable business.”
Green, who bought his trailer in 2009, said he plans to look into the cost of relocating his trailer onto another piece of land.
“I don’t see how there is anyway of forcing Squamish Nation’s hand to keep that park open,” he said. “They want to close it, it is that simple.”
Julie Gamache and her boyfriend bought their home about four years ago for $64,000 and have done extensive renovations, she said.
“No one is happy,” said Gamache, a Squamish Chief employee, after the meeting. “It is like they threw a bomb on us.”
Gamache said she didn’t yet know what she would do next.
“There’s no where in Squamish to take an older trailer like this,” she said.
Green and Gamache said that in the parking lot after the meeting some residents were talking about hiring a lawyer to represent them in a class action lawsuit.
