Mobile Home Listings & News

The recent sale of a seniors-only mobile home park could prove a bust for residents but a boon for St. Vincent de Paul Villages or other charities.

Homer Barrs, president of the Mission Valley Village Mobile Home Park, says residents have been given two to three years to leave by new owners who plan to build apartments on the Mission Gorge Road property that now houses 119 mobile homes.

In these days when mobile homes aren't truly mobile, Barrs estimates that moving one costs $40,000 to $50,000. Plus, there is no place to go, as most parks in the area won't accept older mobile homes. “Realistically,” says Barrs, “many (residents) will abandon their homes, or sell them to people in Mexico, or give them to St. Vincent de Paul.”

The unwelcome news of the impending closure was officially delivered to residents at the clubhouse yesterday by lawyers for Archstone-Smith, the Denver-based developer that bought the mobile home park in February.

Archstone-Smith acknowledged in a statement that it has submitted a “cessation of use” application to the San Diego Housing Commission. Upon city approval, a resident relocation plan will lay out options. The firm says it is committed to assisting residents throughout the process. Yesterday they told them a package, which could involve paying them the insurance value of their homes and other options, should be available in three to four months.



Barrs says residents had notified the previous owner that they would like the opportunity to buy the park if it were offered for sale. When they learned that the sale occurred without their knowledge, they filed a legal challenge and now are investigating other legal remedies.
“We're all retirees, and a lot of us are on fixed incomes,” Barrs says. “We can't afford to do a lot to fight this. . . . We're going to lose our homes and our community and our friends. You can't buy that.”


Cubs come to California
Three lion cubs, just over a month old and weighing less than 10 pounds each, have been rescued by Lions, Tigers and Bears, a big-cat rescue sanctuary in Alpine.
Bobbi Brink, founder of the preserve, got a call two weeks ago from an exotic-cat rescue group in Louisiana that couldn't keep the newborn cubs.

“We had to act fast,” says Brink, who received emergency clearance from the California Department of Fish & Game and brought the cubs here Thursday.

As she and volunteer Barbara Cain drove from Shreveport, La., to their flight in Houston, they stopped at mini-marts to heat up formula for the cubs, who each needed to be bottle-fed every three hours. They got used to passers-by exclaim, “Oh my gosh, it's a lion!”


Chula who?
The days of San Diego being described as a city 135 miles south of Los Angeles seem to be over. Now it seems that Chula Vista has inherited San Diego's old identity crisis, if you read a recent announcement from Borders bookstores headlined: “San Diego, California's Chula Vista Welcomes New Borders Store.”

Names in the news
Former Mexico President Vicente Fox will be in San Diego tomorrow for an Institute of the Americas dinner at the U.S. Grant Hotel. Fox will receive the institute's Award for Democracy and Peace . . .
Gail Naughton, a San Diego biotech entrepreneur, has been appointed to the national board of directors for the City of Hope cancer center. Naughton, who is co-founder of Advanced Tissue Sciences and dean of San Diego State's College of Business Administration, holds more than 90 patents in tissue engineering.


Filming takes a toll
A Fox News reporter appeared at the San Diego-Coronado Bridge the other day to respond to residents' calls that the toll booths had reopened. Tolls stopped in 2002, and Fox News callers didn't like the idea of tolls being reinstated.
Turns out a Kia car commercial crew was filming on the bridge, and the toll booth had been reactivated solely for the shoot. Simulating a horse race, the new Kias were taking off from the toll booth lanes. Expect to see the TV commercial soon – and don't worry about paying a toll.