Trails End residents fear homelessness as new owners threaten evictions to clean up

By Corin Hoggard

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    FRESNO, California (KFSN) — Eviction is on the minds of people living in the troubled Trails End Mobile Home Park now that new ownership has come in and vowed to clean up.

“What’s going to happen is we’re going to be homeless,” said Billy Hastings. “To be honest with you. I’m not going to lie to you. That’s what’s going to happen.”

More than half of Trails End residents got an eviction notice dated October 3. It includes a cover letter saying residents can stay if they fix health and safety violations.

Three days later, they got a certified letter without the option to stay.

Hastings and his wife, Linda moved into Trails End right around the turn of the century. It hasn’t always been easy, especially because Hastings lives with epilepsy.

“We used to live right here,” Hastings told us as he pointed to a lot now filled with dirt and a large community storage container. “We lived here for 20 years. And our trailer burned down right here.”

They lost almost everything in the June 2021 fire since they had no insurance.

They moved in with a relative in the same mobile home park, but never quite got back on solid ground.

And now their landlord sent an eviction notice.

“It’s going to be bad and she’s got health problems too, so we both have health issues really bad,” Hastings said. “So I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

The landlord told Action News Hastings isn’t on the lease, and nobody has paid the rent for several months.

Either way, the new owners of Trails End tell us their new rules don’t allow mobile homeowners to rent trailers to anyone else.

26 other residents — more than half the spaces in Trails End — have gotten two separate 60-day eviction notices from a law office now working with those new owners, Harmony Communities.

“The first one, they were talking about ‘We want to help you comply,'” said Trails End resident Leslie Wright. “The second one was just ‘Get your trailer out of here.'”

The first notice Wright received was dated October 3. It detailed health and safety violations — like a shed the park management hasn’t approved and a bad seal on her air conditioning window unit.

But that notice included a cover letter making it clear Wright and her son could stay in the home if they corrected the issues and got an inspection confirming it.

The second letter, dated October 6, didn’t include the cover letter. It only told residents they had 60 days to remove their mobile homes.

Harmony Communities would not do a recorded interview, but on Twitter Action News got them to say they’ll stick to the promises of the October Third letter: “Clear violations. Get city sign-off. Tenancy reinstated.”

Wright says she’s trying, but she doesn’t think the notices are detailed enough and she’s scared she might become homeless in two months.

“Everything that they’ve asked us to do, we’re doing,” she said. “We are in compliance. If there’s any more, they need to be a little more specific.”

City spokeswoman Sontaya Rose told us code enforcement will send officers to reinspect Trails End homes for health and safety violations.

Those can usually run up to $200, but Rose told us they’ll do it for free.

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