Defining ‘Trailer’ Term

“Plan to Buy Mobile Home Park Advances,” Oct. 30.

Thank you for publicizing our effort to purchase the mobile home park in which we live. The headline is correct: “mobile home park.” Unfortunately, the article twice refers to our “trailer park.” When the words trailer park are used, many people immediately conjure up images of “trailer trash” or worse. As one resident lamented, “They put horses in trailers!”

Granted, when our homes were first installed, they were trailered into place. Many have been here for 30 years or more and have not been trailered since. We cannot hook them up to a truck and tour the country. Mobile home owners and the manufactured housing industry alike consider them mobile homes, not trailers.

Not all the residents are financially disadvantaged. In addition to our 29 low-income residents, there are also about 130 others who could apply for conventional funding without government assistance to buy their spaces.

Our effort to buy the park began in 1993, and we could be the first mobile home park in Los Angeles County history to convert from privately owned to resident ownership. When that blessed day arrives, we the residents will take control of our ever-spiraling housing costs.

KIM WEBB

Topanga

Webb is the secretary of ROAR, Resident Owned and Run Inc., a mobile home owners association.