Dripping Springs mobile home residents in danger of becoming homeless
DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas - Residents in a mobile home community in Dripping Springs are in danger of becoming homeless. They are pleading for more time after receiving 60-day notices to vacate their homes.
A letter was sent out to 36 families in the Gateway Estates Mobile Home Park in Dripping Springs.
"There are some people who've been here upwards of 20 years," Project Connect Dripping Springs President Martin Garza said.
The letter said the residents need to leave within 60 days.
"There are families, there are kids at the other end of that communication," Garza said.
The notice came on July 29, 2024, just a couple of weeks before the first day of school for almost 60 children who live in the park.
"All of a sudden to just get this devastating news like this, it was awful," Garza said.
Residents and community members voiced their concerns and frustrations at the August Dripping Springs City Council meeting.
"We feel like this is vulture capitalism at its worst," Gateway Estates resident Jim Luketich said.
Dripping Springs Mayor Bill Foulds told community members at the meeting that no redevelopment plans had been submitted to the city at that time. Residents said they’re hoping for more time to figure out where they’re going to go.
"To give anyone sixty days to vacate a mobile home from its property, much less find a place, much less impossible to find in Dripping Springs," Hometown Missions Vice President Chuck Lemmond said.
"Some might be moved, some might be sold in place, and then the buyer will move it somewhere else. Every situation is going to be different depending on the family involved in the home that they're living in," Garza said.
It’s estimated to cost about $20,000 to move a mobile home to a new location.
"Most of these families don't have that type of money," Garza said.
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This situation is putting some in danger of being homeless.
"It is going to be a matter of whether they're going to need the community's help, or they might face that situation," Garza said.
Apparently, after community members met with the developer, Santeal Enterprises, on Friday, residents are not required to pay rent as long as they are working on a plan to move out.
"It's going to be a big effort to move 36 families," Garza said.
The developer did not return FOX 7’s calls about what they plan to do with the property and when trespassing notices may eventually go out if residents don’t move on.
To help families, there is a GoFundMe fundraiser and a Project Connect donation link.