Homeowners have faced a tough decision since the storm —continue living in unsuitable conditions or cut losses and move on. Renters have disappeared, and most of the mobile homes they occupied have been demolished. The remaining, marked with a red X, await their fate.

Brianna Craig has been living in her carport since Hurricane Ian flooded her East Naples mobile home with almost 4 feet of water. But her concern has shifted from rebuilding her home to just keeping a roof over her head. “If I lost my home and I had to go, on my income, I’d be on the streets,” Craig said, sitting on a bucket in her driveway at the Harmony Shores Mobile Home Port. “I couldn’t even rent a hotel room for a month from what I get from social security.” Craig has been living at Harmony Shores for 19 years.

Craig informed the manager and property owner that the drainage pipe 20 feet from her door needed to be cleaned out and unclogged weeks before the storm. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve dug that out my own self with a kitchen utensil,” she said. Then after the storm there was ankle-high standing water for 10 days before someone came out. Four days after the storm, owners and renters were told they had to vacate the property and the breaker boxes were turned off and zip-tied shut. “They wanted to declare it uninhabitable so they could throw the people out that were still here,” Craig said.

Craig, who is 62 and on disability, thinks the property owner will push homeowners out once new manufactured homes go in, a belief she bases on how the company handled the community after Ian. She said many of her neighbors have already left voluntarily, fearing evictions, and rent increases if they stayed any longer. Craig still has concerns that by next year she will have to move out because she cannot afford to rebuild from scratch and she cannot afford more rent increases, which she believes will happen once new homes are in place.

“There’s no low-income nothing here,” she said. “But, hey, that’s Naples, one of the wealthiest towns in the United States.”

If you are a victim of hurricane Ian or Nicole, let the Florida Property Damage Attorneys at The Consumer Law Office (CLO) help you receive the maximum property damage compensation you are entitled to under your insurance policy.

Contact CLO Today 305-940-0924 for a FREE Comprehensive Property Damage assessment and consultation. Visit https://consumerlawoffice.com/

 

Your insurance company has the resources to hire experts to protect their interests; your representation should be no different.

 

At CLO, we only get paid when you get paid by your insurance company.

 

Contact CLO Today! 305-940-0924