CLEVELAND — Homeowners at Euclid Beach Mobile Home Park in Cleveland are still fighting to be able to stay in their homes, but if they are given no choice and have to move, they're preparing to battle for what they call fair market price for their properties.
Some have been told by the Western Reserve Land Conservancy that they'll have to find a new place to call home by September 2024, after the conservancy purchased the property in 2021 and is now planning to create a new park on the 28 acres along Lake Erie.
Euclid Beach homeowners like Caroline Smith told News 5 they are still hoping to stay on the property, but if they must move they're hoping the conservancy will be fair in what it's willing to pay for their homes.
Smith said she's received very little information on how the conservancy will arrive at a purchase price for dozens of homes at the property, because not all of them can be moved to a new location.
“It is extremely important that we get what what we put in out," Smith said. "If they gave us what was assessed for the tax value it would be $10,000 to $15,000 that we’re losing."
Smith believes a price for the properties at the mobile community should have been formulated when the announcement to turn the property into a park was made.
"Don’t you think you would have known that coming into the meeting what they are offering," Smith said. "You got the recommendation that you were going to change it over, shouldn’t you have already had that at the table, not say well I can’t talk numbers today?"
William and Brandy Reed have the same concerns about their modular home at Euclid Beach. The Reeds believe they could lose more than $50,000 in equity if their home is valued based on its tax assessed value of $12,000, since their insurance company placed the replacement cost for their home at $77,000.
“They want go on what the tax value is, it says ours is $12,000, so is that what they’re going to assess our property at is $12,000, because that’s nothing,” Brandy Reed said. “We asked them, but they said, 'well I’m not here to talk numbers, I’m just worried about trying to be transparent,' well you’re not being transparent because six people asked the same question.”
Western Reserve Land Conservancy Senior Vice President Matt Zone couldn't yet get specific on how his agency will be arriving at purchase prices for homes at Euclid Beach Mobile Home Park. However, Zone told News 5 the conservancy has hired property assessors who will create financial models that will help his team arrive at what it considers fair market value for each home.
Zone said he expects his agency will have home purchase offers to all property owners within the next 90 days.
“We’re going to build out a transition plan that is layered with compensation," Zone said. “Not only will they be compensated fair market value for what their units are worth, but we’re going to help them with moving expenses and other costs associated with that.”
Zone said it's just not financially viable for the property to continue as a mobile home park, because the aging water and sewer system infrastructure would require more than $6 million in replacement costs, which would price the rent for current tenants out of the market.
Meanwhile, William and Brandy Reed said they are prepared to fight along side other Euclid Beach homeowners to stay on their home sites, and if they have to move, they're ready to battle for a fair price for their homes with the help of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.
“It’s affordable for me, and I also have a handicapped brother that I’m taking care of," William Reed said. “We haven’t seen nobody; we haven’t been given no numbers yet or nothing. This isn’t my house, this is our home, this is our home.”
News 5 will continue to follow-up on this developing story.
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