Community Corner
Last Walden Pond Tenants Prepare to Move Out
A mother is getting ready to leave the property she's called home for six years.
Lara Curtis has been readying to move out of Walden Pond Mobile Home Park.
The owners of the park issued evictions to the few remaining residents there last week. Notices were served for tenants of six trailers. Five of those are now empty.
Curtis, 43, and her family, including kids, are the last tenants remaining at the park.
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An eviction notice she was served last week had an error with its address, and Walden’s Pond’s owners are in the process of preparing another.
“I knew it was going to happen,” Curtis said.
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She said she expected a proper notice to arrive Monday, July, 8, or Tuesday, July 9.
Curtis has called the park home since before problems there came to light almost exactly a year ago.
Last summer, Walden Pond‘s owners tried to close the park, but didn't follow legal procedures to remove residents. Some tenants left, but others stayed. Problems plagued the park, including stripping of trailers. The city eventually stepped in, footing more than $155,000 in expenses to clean up the mess. City leaders are considering imposing a lien on the property July 9 to try and recoup their money.
The trailer park is owned by Walden Pond, LLC. New Port Richey code enforcement officer Liz Nichols confirmed that it appears the evictions served this past week were served legally. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it served eviction notices.
Curtis said people have again started stripping trailers in the wake of the evictions.
Asked why Walden Pond, LLC, was now filing evictions, Paul Beraquit, managing partner of the company, said of residents, “We want to get them out.” He referred other questions to his lawyer.
Curtis has been packing up belongings, including clothes and electronics, to move out of the trailer at Walden Pond and into another property on Snug Harbor Road.
Curtis said she owns a trailer with an addition there. The trailer itself is uninhabitable. It has no electrical wiring, among other problems, Curtis said. She said she and husband Percey Eugene Canada will likely be living under the carport. The two equate it to homelessness.
“I don’t want to put my kids in that situation,” Canada said.
Curtis has shared her Walden Pond home with her five children, ages 11-17, and her husband, who she says is unemployed and on disability. Curtis is also unemployed. She says she’s her husband’s caretaker.
The children won’t be living with Curtis at her Snug Harbor property immediately, she said. She said two have special needs and are living with a cousin. Another two will be living elsewhere. The fifth is 17 and almost an adult. The children’s names are Raven, Omega, Coral, Asria and Thomas.
Curtis said she wants to be able to live with her kids again by the start of the new school year. She said she’s been trying to make the trailer on Snug Harbor Road inhabitable but hasn’t been able to get help she needs to fix the place up.
Curtis said she has lived at Walden Pond for six years. She said it used to be a halfway decent place to live and that it deteriorated. There have been periods when the park has gone without on-site management or maintenance.
"Something like this should never happen," Curtis said.
The trailer park is owned by Walden Pond, LLC. New Port Richey code enforcement officer Liz Nichols confirmed that it appears the evictions served this past week were served legally. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it served eviction notices.
Curtis said people have again started stripping trailers in the wake of the evictions.
Asked why Walden Pond, LLC, was now filing evictions, Paul Beraquit, managing partner of the company, said of residents, “We want to get them out.” He referred other questions to his lawyer.
Curtis has been packing up belongings, including clothes and electronics, to move out of the trailer at Walden Pond and into another property on Snug Harbor Road.
Curtis said she owns a trailer with an addition there. The trailer itself is uninhabitable. It has no electrical wiring, among other problems, Curtis said. She said she and husband Percey Eugene Canada will likely be living under the carport. The two equate it to homelessness.
“I don’t want to put my kids in that situation,” Canada said.
Curtis has shared her Walden Pond home with her five children, ages 11-17, and her husband, who she says is unemployed and on disability. Curtis is also unemployed. She says she’s her husband’s caretaker.
The children won’t be living with Curtis at her Snug Harbor property immediately, she said. She said two have special needs and are living with a cousin. Another two will be living elsewhere. The fifth is 17 and almost an adult. The children’s names are Raven, Omega, Coral, Asria and Thomas.
Curtis said she wants to be able to live with her kids again by the start of the new school year. She said she’s been trying to make the trailer on Snug Harbor Road inhabitable but hasn’t been able to get help she needs to fix the place up.
Curtis said she has lived at Walden Pond for six years. She said it used to be a halfway decent place to live and that it deteriorated. There have been periods when the park has gone without on-site management or maintenance.
"Something like this should never happen," Curtis said.
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