Residents of trailer court forced out scramble to pack up



MILWAUKEE (WITI) — The city of Milwaukee says it will help residents kicked out of their trailer homes connect with new, safer places to stay. Residents of the Evergreen Trailer Court near 27th and Howard have said they're being kicked out, and now, we're learning they may have some help available to them.

Residents of the Trailer Court on Monday, February 3rd were busy packing up their belongings. Some received notice to vacate by Monday.

"Just constantly packing, packing, packing. I ran and got my friends who don't drive and brought them over here to help us pack," Kitty Wuerl said.

The city owns the space, and some of the trailers -- thanks to a recent tax foreclosure.

"They started to do inspections and found a number of the units have serious life safety defects," Todd Weiler with the Department of Neighborhood Service said.

On Friday, January 31st, the city warned residents that some of the units were not fit to live in. That meant some got stamped with orange eviction signs on the spot, and officials were back on the scene to evaluate other units on Monday.

"You have sewage spilling out onto the ground. You've got people that are using space heaters to stay warm in a very thinly insulated mobile home. That's a huge fire risk. We've seen bad things happen from that," Weiler said.

The unsafe conditions meant some residents were anticipating being told to move out and spent the weekend scrambling to get ready.

Volunteer movers heard their story and showed up to help out on Monday morning.

Many of the Trailer Court's residents say they don't have anywhere else to go, and given the time of year, some worry that being barred from their current home will take them from one unsafe situation to another.

"I'm going to try to find an apartment today or tomorrow and I'm going to sleep in the van," one resident said.

Not all of the trailers in the complex are affected by this. City officials were only going through 10 units.

The place has space for up to 42 units.

The city had housing counselors on the scene Monday to help connect the affected residents with possible places to stay.