Walking through many different neighborhoods is part of running for office. Some neighborhoods get more traffic than others. This isn’t right, but it happens. You see that candidates tend to focus on the voters most likely to support their campaign, and those most likely to cut a check.

I’m trying to be different. I hate asking for money anyway, especially in the primary, spending a lot of other people’s money just doesn’t make much sense to me.  So I try to focus on the voters, the people that actually determine elections. I have people that give me advice on where to go and who to talk to, but ultimately the decision on where to go falls to me. My wife, Elizabeth, is one of those who says “Hey, you should go here,” so when she told me “You’re going to this place tomorrow” I said sure.

The place she was referring to is a mobile home park in Portage. She had spoken to one of the residents there and they said that no one running for office had visited there in the 10 years that they had lived there. They simply wanted to know that they would be listened to, as well. It’s easy to forget about Americans that don’t create a lot of noise online or march through the streets with signs and pink caps.

When I went to the park, I was expecting to knock on some doors, meet some hard-working people, and pass out some literature. I was wholly unprepared for what I saw.

The conditions that these people are being forced to live in are absolutely unacceptable. The story unfolded as the residents walked me around the park. This isn’t new. This has been going on for months, and in some cases, many many years.

The park is one of many that dot the landscape around Lake, Porter, and La Porte counties, and provides more affordable housing than many other alternatives. Usually, mobile home communities are tight-knit groups of families that look out for one another and share both good times and bad. This park is no different in that regard. Everyone seems to know everyone else, and as I walked through the streets, waves and smiles were abundant.

Here’s where the story changes, however. Several months ago, a new owner purchased the park, according to the residents, and since then, especially, things went quickly downhill. There are stories surrounding the sale and why it happened.  Some rumors about the city of Portage potentially buying the park, but not doing so because they didn’t want to pay the relocation costs for the residents. We talk more on that later.

Shortly after the alleged sale of the park, old trailers started getting torn down. Unfortunately, this wasn’t done properly, and piles of debris were left sitting. Broken glass and open sewer lines litter the park. Smashed wood filled with splinters.  Metal shards are strewn throughout the streets.  There are still empty and abandoned mobile homes that is so infested with mold that you can smell it from down the street.

Words don’t do the situation here justice. Some very unhealthy people are living in this park and they are ignoring them. There is at least one resident that has survived cancer multiple times, and at least one little girl with Leukemia. These are not the kinds of conditions that they should allow to happen for anyone, especially those with compromised immune systems.

 They have called their elected officials. They have spoken to code enforcement officers that said, “I don’t see anything wrong.” They have ignored them, marginalized, and given platitudes.

When walking through the streets of the park, it is like a pressing weight of hopelessness. No one seems to know who the new owner is and have no idea how to contact them. There’s a management company that has passed out flyers door to door claiming they’re now in charge. They haven’t addressed the shards of glass or the open sewer line to the residents, simply claiming that the former owner is responsible.

How are these people supposed to get help? According to one resident, the park hasn’t filed the proper paperwork in order to allow the residents to get assistance from the trustee. Another resident says they’ve given up and is in the process of moving out, despite having lived in the community for 20 years. Many others don’t have the money to move even if they wanted to. Calls to officials go unanswered and no one seems to know where exactly to turn.

They filled me with both sadness and rage walking through this park. Street after street had hazards and code violations aplenty. These people have been left to twist in the wind, while excuse and apathy sets in  reigning supreme. I promised these people I would get to the bottom of what is going on here, and that’s the track I’m on now. These residents deserve answers. Someone will be giving them some. One way or another.