MANASSAS — Residents fought back tears on Monday after the Manassas City Council declined to vote on the fate of the East End Mobile Home Park.
Residents of the failed trailer park at 9021 Centreville Road in Manassas were notified 11 months ago they would need to find new homes as the city was nearing a deal to purchase the property for $1.9 million. The reason: a sanitary sewer system on the property failed. Stormwater mixes with sewage and flows back into to a water treatment plant and can mix with the city’s drinking water.
City Council on Monday night spent a portion of their meeting in closed session where a proposed contract from Dumfries-based charity Catholics for Housing to by the park was reviewed.
After the closed session, Vice Mayor Marc Aveni and the rest of the city council – except for Mayor Hal Parrish II who was absent from the meeting — took the dais. The council is concerned the charity did not outline the amount of time in which it will fix the leaking sewer, according to a statement read by Aveni.
About 300 people live in the park, about 120 are children, in 58 trailers.
“We’ve been fighting to save our homes for 11 months,” said Melissa Watson, whose lived in East End Mobile Home Park for 15 years. “It’s July, and school is right around the corner. Where are we going to sleep?”
Virginia State Senator Jeremy McPike called the deal to purchase the park a “proper proposal” by Catholics for Housing, and he vouched for the organization. He urged the council to approve the “rare win-win” settlement.
“They know how to pull a deal together, to find a deal that works for everyone,” said McPike.
City officials have yet to make public the proposed terms of the proposal to buy the park. One official told Potomac Local he was only able to review the proposed agreement only hours before Monday’s meeting, not leaving enough time for review and a subsequent vote on the matter.
Supporters of the move say the risk for the city is low because if the sewer issue is not fixed, the city can then come in, as they did last year, and notify residents to leave.
“If it gets fixed, that’s great. Maybe it won’t, but at least we have to try and give this a chance to work,” added Watson.
A representative from Catholics for Housing did not speak at Monday’s meeting.
Update 4:30 p.m.
Potomac Local contacted Catholics for Housing to discuss its proposal to purchase the trailer park. The organization provided this statement via email:
“CFH is excited about the potential opportunity to put our expertise and experience to work on behalf of OR bring solutions to East End Mobile Home Park. We are following the prescribed process for this to occur and will comment further when the process has been completed,” said Karen S. DeVito, Executive Director of Catholics for Housing, Inc.
