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Story Archive

Story of the Week: Maria del Rayo Chavez

My name is Maria del Rayo Chavez and I have lived in Trailer Haven Mobile Home Park since 2021. I decided to live here because the place I was living before was getting too expensive, and I thought this would be a more affordable option for me and my family. I looked at some other communities, but there wasn’t much available at a good price.

Our community has been owned by Monte Christo ever since I’ve lived here. It’s not a nice community. We don’t have anything here, but they charge us so much for everything. They raised our rent about $115/month last year. 70% of my monthly income goes towards housing expenses. We get charged $80 a month for them to cut the tiny patch of grass they call a lawn. We pay $100 for parking, but there’s never enough and people end up getting towed because they have nowhere to park. They cut off the water without notice. There are potholes in the streets. There’s an empty house here that a man is still paying rent for because they won’t let him sell his house without their approval. It’s not fair!

I take care of two elderly women (93 and 76-year olds) here in the community. One month, one of them was left with just $3 at the end of the month. Another elderly neighbor was left crying in the street because she couldn’t afford rent and had nowhere else to live. These people have no compassion at all.

We don’t feel like our voices are being heard. I feel like there is discrimination against immigrants and we aren’t treated the same. This breaks my heart when I see it happening to the elderly women I take care of. Management accused me of allowing someone to use drugs near my home, which later turned out to be a homeless man, and when I confronted them about it, they didn’t acknowledge my message or offer an apology when they were proven wrong.

We’ve gone to the City Council to fight for change and put a stop to the excessive rent increases and unfair treatment. We want to be treated with dignity and respect. We’re not planning to stay here anymore because they are charging us way too much and we get nothing but poor treatment in return.

Matt Chapman (Waukee, IA)