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A long-standing mobile-home park near Scottsdale closed permanently last Sunday, as hundreds of residents left the place they thought would be their home for decades.
Some of the mobile-home owners are suing, accusing park managers of lying about how many years Roadrunner Lake Resort would be open, as affordable mobile-home parks across the Valley close in favor of new development.
Now the 55-and-older community appears abandoned, seemingly at a moment’s notice, with furniture and clothes left behind and dozens of empty homes remaining.
Former resident Joyce Spohn said the community of more than 600 residents used to be athriving, fun place to live with clubs and activities for those living in the park. When her husband died, she said 200 people from the community came to his memorial service.
“It was a very active community and very well supported by everyone in the community,” she said.
Some former residents of the park are taking legal action against Arizona Communities and Wenner Management, the companies that owned and managed the park at McDowell Road and Loop 101.
Residents claim park managers promised the park had a 99-year lease on the property with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. However, the lease was actually set to expire on Aug. 4, 2019, and the SRPMIC did not intend to renew it.
‘A horrible, horrible lesson’
Wendy Murray, who moved to the park with her husband Randy and their 30-year-old son, said she never would have bought their home had she known she would have to move.
“It has been a horrible, horrible lesson,” she said.
Murray said she believes the stress involved with losing her home contributed to her husband’s Parkinson’s disease.
“The doctors will tell you that if you have a lot of stress, it can induce what you already have, and that’s what happened,” Murray said.
Spohn expressed a similar sentiment, saying she partially blames the stress involved with the park’s closing for her husband’s death of a heart attack.
Former resident of the park Sue Ishikawa said she and her husband Allen moved out last year. However, she said that as of late July, there were still people living in the park who either couldn’t afford to leave or who had health problems that made it difficult for them to move.
“They just have nowhere to go,” she said.
The length of the lease
Former park residents say that the management of Roadrunner Lake Resort told those living in the park that the lease would be valid for years to come.
However, documents show the park opened on tribal land in 1969 with a 25-year lease, which was renewed for another 25 years in 1987.
That lease was scheduled to end on Aug. 4, 2019. The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community did not agree to renew the agreement.
On July 11, signs were posted around the park, informing residents that as of Aug. 5, “any persons remaining on the property will be trespassing.”
They will be evicted, and “no extensions will be granted,” said Kim Secakuku, a tribe spokeswoman.
Residents of a 55-plus mobile home park on the Salt River Reservation near Scottsdale, some of whom have lived there for decades, will be forced to move when a lease held by the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community expires next year.
Tribal officials in 2018 saidthey gave residents of Roadrunner Lake Resort “ample time” for “closure and transition of the trailer park.”
Eric Traut, a lawyer forformer residents, said park managersknew the property lease would expire in 2019 but told residents it would be good for much longer, according to the lawsuit complaint.
“Their sales staff for years told people that this was a 99-year lease on the land and that they could live out the rest of their lives there without any problems,” Traut said.
Park managers should have informed mobile-home owners of the real expiration so “people could make their own decision about whether or not they wanted to buy property there.”
Secakuku said the SRPMIC has no plans currently for the land which used to house Roadrunner Lake Resort.
“The first consideration will be to evaluate the condition of the land and develop a remediation plan for any clean-up efforts,” she said.
Seeking legal action
After park managers announced the property would close, they asked residents to give up their rights tosue the park in exchange for the management company buying their homes. But residents say they were paid less than the homes were worth.
Spohn said she regrets signing an agreement for $5,000.
If she could go back, Spohn said she would likely join the lawsuit instead, because she was “under duress and under a time when I was in a great deal of shock” in the months following her husband’s death when she agreed to sell for thousands of dollars less than she put into her home.
“They would say anything or do anything to get you to sign off and that you weren’t going to sue them,” Spohn said.
Ishikawa, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said she and her husband, who owned two properties at the park, were told by management “not to worry” when they found out in January 2016 that the lease was set to expire.
Ishikawa said she and her husband Allen lost $50,000 on the value of their homes.
“They lied to all of us,” she said.
Wenner Management President Bob Rice said park management “communicated regularly with the residents” about the status of the lease, and the company is assisting residents with relocation.
“We do continue to work with people who are in the park today. We have delivered waters to the homes of people who are still in the park,” he said.
However, Ishikawa said that the management only assisted residents who signed the agreement not to sue Arizona Communities.
The lawsuit goes to mediation this week.
Traut hopes to reach a settlement with the park managers, he said. They are seeking $1 million in restitution for the losses that residents received from having to sell their homes at a lesser price, $1200 per plaintiff to cover moving costs, as well as emotional distress damages, Traut said.
“If not, we just continue with the litigation,” Traut said.
Ultimately, Spohn said that she faced mistreatment from the management of a place she had hoped to call home for the rest of her life.
“We were lied to and we were misrepresented,” she said.
Nathan J. Fish contributed reporting for this story.
Reach the reporter Claire Rafford by email at [email protected] and on Twitter at @clairerafford.
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