Another Victory for Mobile Home Park Residents for Equality & Fairness

Mobile Home Park Residents Win Again: Huge Casella bills wiped clean

DUXBURY, VT - Chalk up another victory for people power in Vermont and the Mobile Home Park Residents for Equality & Fairness (MHPREF). Mobile home residents from Patterson Park in Duxbury who were sent thousands of dollars in bills they could not pay from Casella Waste Management just learned that the giant waste collection company agreed to wipe the bills clean. Members of MHPREF and the Vermont Workers’ Center organized and met with company officials on December 23 about these bills which ranged from $2,000 - $6,000- a heavy burden for flood survivors who had lost almost everything they owned.

“This is another example of what can happen when we stick together. Casella did the right thing, after they saw people were coming together and were willing to make their voices heard,” said Tracey Towne, a leader of Mobile Home Residents for Equality & Fairness and former resident of Patterson Park.

Mobile Home Residents for Equality & Fairness began organizing in early Fall after learning that they were expected to pay upwards of $4,000 each to have their destroyed trailers removed. After a series of media actions and community organizing, elected officials and public agencies finally addressed the need to remove all of the trailers at no charge to the residents. The residents who had accrued these huge Casella bills removed their trailers themselves before this agreement was made.

The stories of the impact of Tropical Storm Irene on mobile home park residents and the grassroots organizing of Mobile Home Park Residents for Equality and Fairness is the subject of a new film called Strength of the Storm. The Central Vermont premier of the film is scheduled for 6pm, Saturday, January 28, 2012 at the Old Labor Hall in Barre. More information on the documentary film is available at www.strengthofthestorm.org.

For more information, please contact Sandra Gaffney at 802-461-7865. Members of Mobile Home Park Residents for Equality and Fairness are available for interview or comment.