And for Carolyn Leeson, the lifeline turned into a thread a while ago.
The two disabled Star Valley Mobile Home Park residents now face homelessness. One has struggled since 1989 with mental and physical limits. The other has lived imprisoned in post-traumatic stress disorder and a body wracked by seizures.
But now theyâre both facing homelessness â or the need to move away in hopes they can find shelter with family or friends.
Theyâre both profoundly disabled and potentially tragic illustrations of a frightening trend â disability payments donât provide enough to pay the rent in even normal times. Add a pandemic with its rising housing prices worsening an already profound shortage of affordable housing and theyâre out of luck.
Most of the mobile home parks in Star Valley have sold since 2019 at eye-popping prices millions of dollars above the previous purchase price.
The sale of 10 parcels of land now used by mobile home and/or recreational vehicle parks have already triggered a string of evictions and could ultimately eliminate a sizable chunk of the regionâs dwindling stock of affordable housing.
For instance, the Star Valley and C-Bar Diamond RV/Mobile Home parks sold recently for $2 million. They previously sold for $700,000. The nearby Lamplighter Mobile Home Park in 2019 sold for $12 million; it had sold for only $1 million in 1997.
Already, abrupt requests for people to leave with a 30-day notice have been reported at sites such as Ponderosa Glen, Star Valley and C-Bar Diamond mobile home parks.