Mobile home park residents plead with Chicago suburb to keep their water on
BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (CBS) -- People living in a mobile home park in south suburban Blue Island were calling on the city to keep their water on, after the property's management company failed to pay the bill.
Residents at the Forest View mobile home park have until Nov. 20 until their water is shut off, just three days before Thanksgiving, and they're doing everything they can to stop that from happening.
They rallied at the mobile home park on Sunday to ask the city to keep providing a basic necessity.
"We need water. We can't live without water. Try to live in your house one day without water, and tell me that water is not an absolute – an absolute absolute necessity," said Stephen Hammer, a disabled father of three, alongside his neighbors on Sunday. "We're here, because we have done the right thing, and we're just pleading with the city."
Last week, Forest View residents were notified by the city that their water service will be cut off on Nov. 20, and their homes will no longer be safe to occupy.
"The city of Blue Island is trying to basically get rid of this park, in a sense that they are trying to cut our water off to basically make this place uninhabitable. The city is not working with us," Hammer said.
The company that manages the mobile home park, Mer-Car Corp., hasn't paid the water bill for the property since March. Now the balance, including usage and late fees, sits at nearly $900,000.
"How is it that they haven't paid the water in God knows how long, and we are the ones who are going to suffer the consequences? It's not fair, it's unjust, and it's just wrong," Forest View resident Patricia Guzman said.
Guzman and her neighbors said they were marching Sunday in hopes of making it right. Guzman has lived at Forest View for the last seven years.
"We've paid our lot fee religiously on time every month," she said. "We were never told about this disconnection. We were never warned. We were never given a heads up."
Guzman said the water is one thing, but other conditions have become an eyesore.
"We have grass up to here, water lines. A lot of people have vacant lights. With the water, it's just coming up by itself. It's unreal, it's unfair, and it's unjust," she said.
A Blue Island city administrator said a lien was placed on the property in September to address the outstanding water bill, after several attempts were made to collect.
As Nov. 20 inches closer, residents said they're going the extra mile while asking the city to put them first, not the money.
"Respect our residents, and please show us some sort of sympathy, and help us come to a resolution with this, and that's all I've got to say," Hammer said.
An attorney for the people who live at Forest View plans to file a request for an emergency restraining order against the city and property management company, in hopes of preventing the shutoff. The residents also plan to take their concerns to the Blue Island City Council meeting on Tuesday.