Redevelopment threatens to bulldoze the lives of Mississauga mobile home residents
Retirees face uncertain future

BramptonGuardian.com
Jan. 4, 2018
Roger Belgrave

A group of Mississauga mobile home residents, many of them retired senior citizens, feel their homes and financial security are being bulldozed by redevelopment plans.

Many in the Twin Pines mobile home park are trying to come to grips with an uncertain future that looks undeniably bleak for pensioners with limited means and options.

They describe living in limbo for several years now as the Peel Housing Corporation (PHC) presses ahead with its plan to turn the 25-acre property, near Dundas Street and Dixie Road, into a mix of affordable housing and market-priced homes.

Consultations with the residents have failed to allay residents’ fears they will be uprooted and lose what little financial security and equity their homes provide in retirement.

When PHC board members voted Dec. 7 to move forward with a transition plan, that includes a $31,000 “goodwill payment” to displaced homeowners, residents were as devastated as they were enraged.

“I’m very angry and very sad,” said 69-year-old Carol Podsadecki. “This was supposed to be it.”

The single mother said she worked 25 years with the city and another 20 years with General Electric and chose the affordable, close-knit cottage life of this community nestled in an urban environment to settle down in retirement.

“I don’t have any savings. I was a single mom,” explained Podsadecki, who still pays a mortgage.

Even with the $31,000 payout being offered residents, Podsadecki, like so many others, said she couldn’t afford to carry a market rent home or rental and has no desire to live in public housing.

“I’m stashing as much money as I can because I don’t know what the future is going to hold for me,” said Jim Kellock.

The 59-year-old retired corrections officer used to live not far from the park and discovered the community of more than 200 homes while looking for a retirement spot for his mother-in-law, now in her 70s.

He and his wife bought a home for his mother-in-law in 2007 and liked the community so much that two years later the couple purchased their own property in the park.

He now regrets sinking his hard-earned savings into the homes.

“What do I have to show for it,” he remarked. “I won’t have anything. I’m losing everything.”

It’s ironic Peel housing, also known as Peel Living and the region’s largest affordable housing provider, is forcing people out of affordable housing to build more affordable housing and market-priced homes, Kellock noted.

“They’re displacing all the affordable housing here,” said 85-year-old Leonard Lyn, who moved in the community two years ago thinking this would be his retirement home.

Peel Living joined with Twin Pines residents in 1996 to purchase the park and halt potential redevelopment when the property when it went up for sale.

The park’s resident association loaned the housing corporation $1 million to assist with that purchase.

The not-for-profit corporation, directed by Region of Peel councillors, signed a 20-year lease agreement with the residents.

In 2012, Peel Living decided to let the lease expire and redevelop the land.

Patrick Rostant and his wife, who died of cancer seven years ago, spent their $145,000-life-savings when they moved into the park in 2009.

The 77-year-old retired postal worker wouldn’t mind being forced from his home so much if the housing corporation offered residents what they paid for their homes.

But assessments provided as part of a resident transition plan developed by consulting firm KPMG said home values could range from $14,000 to $131,000.

Patrick Hipson paid $150,000 for his home when he moved into the community in 2008 and feels Peel housing is “stealing our money” and forcing residents “in places they don’t want to be.”

If Peel spent a portion of the millions spent on consultants to properly compensate homeowners, said Rostant, most residents would be happy.

Residents’ options are to take the $31,000-payout and move, stay and use the cash toward purchasing or renting in the new residential development, or forgo the payment and enter into a long-term affordable housing lease based on income.