From Texas Public Radio:
Mobile home parks are closing at an alarming rate in San Antonio, and a new report highlights the reasons behind these closures that threaten an already vulnerable population.
Often used as examples in class commentary, mobile home parks are also a unique part of Americana. They are the subject of country songs and poor-taste jokes about tornadoes. But these homes offer affordability not found elsewhere in the San Antonio real estate market.
The report is titled, “Endangered: San Antonio’s Vanishing Mobile Home Parks and a Path for Preservation,” and was conducted by three researchers from the University of Texas School of Law.
They found nine mobile home parks in San Antonio have closed since 2014, and predict dozens more are at risk of closing unless the city intervenes.
Around 22,000 residents live in 8,000 mobile homes in 88 San Antonio mobile home parks according to the report.
Irma Ibarra, 51, lives at the Riverside Trailer Court on the South Side in a bright yellow mobile home she painted herself.
She pays $300 a month for her lot and all utilities. Ibarra earns $9 an hour at the nearby McDonald’s.
Speaking through a translator she told Texas Public Radio that she needs her mobile home because she cannot afford an apartment or house — just like most others in her park.
“Right now, where we’re living at, with the amount of money we get, this is very good for the income we receive,” Ibarra said.