Councilman: Some southeast DM areas look 'uninhabitable'
By JASON PULLIAM
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
4 City Councilman Brian Meyer is forming a citizen's task force to outline ways to clean up several southeast Des Moines mobile home parks.
Many residents during the recent Ward 4 council election spoke out about perceived poor living conditions and aesthetic shortcomings of some of the area's most rundown mobile home parks. The issue also factored prominently at a town hall meeting Meyer held last month for all of the ward's neighborhoods.
The task force evolved from a town hall meeting, where Meyer solicited volunteers to serve on the committee.
Possible solutions range from cleaning up the mobile home parks to relocating residents to alternative housing, Meyer said.
Meyer identified the mobile home court at 3140 Indianola Ave. near Weeks Middle School as the first property the group will likely address.
"The living conditions there, I think, are deplorable," he said. "... Some of them appear to be almost uninhabitable."
The property in question is owned by Richard L. Clark, 3140 Indianola Ave., Trailer No. 7, Polk County Assessor's records show. Clark could not be reached for comment.
Other mobile home parks' residents and city leaders have expressed concerns about include those located at:
- 2825 S.E. 14th St., owned by Glenwood Investments, LLC, 4626 S.W. Ninth St., Suite 100.
- 4315 S.E. 14th St., owned by Bonnie England, 15330 Ash St., Hesperia, Calif.
- 1222 E. Emma Ave., owned by Dora Barron, 2332 E. Walnut St.
Conditions at several of the mobile home parks are listed as "below normal" to "poor," according to county records.
Redeveloping the sites along Southeast 14th Street was identified as a key priority in a recently completed revitalization study commissioned by the South Side Revitalization Partnership.
Lessons were learned from the troubled 2004 closure of the Highview Mobile Home Park on Southeast 14th Street, Meyer said.
A car wash now occupies the former mobile home site.
The Highview shutdown was fraught with problems finding replacement housing for its roughly 400 residents, many of whom were Hispanic.
"I'm very familiar with that situation," Meyer said. "That is what I am trying to avoid."
The task force will work with city staff, the Iowa Department of Human Services and the state's Division of Latino Affairs to develop proper plans for each of the mobile home parks, Meyer said.
The task force is still being formed and no timetables have been set to establish action plans for each of the mobile home parks.
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