Residents of a mobile home park in Sooke are preparing to move out after a government-approved arbitrator ruled their eviction is legal.
It's the latest in a string of evictions from mobile home parks. Evictions are also underway in Ladysmith and Metchosin as landowner Oak Bay Marine Group moves in to redevelop properties.
In the Sooke case, landowner Jeff Zigay has given residents of 17 mobile homes at Seaview Mobile Home Park near Sooke's downtown until Oct. 31 to move out. The landlord will pay the tenants back 12 months' rent, the minimum required under the law.
Secela Dutton, an 89-year-old widow who has lived in the park for 20 years, says she doesn't know where she will go, and might have to move in with her grown children. "I'll have to leave Sooke no matter what."
In other words, she'll have to leave the community in which she has developed friendships and other valuable connections. If she has to move in with her children, she'll lose her independence. And if she loses both, her health will become compromised.
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