SWEETWATER, FLA. (WSVN) - After months of protests and dreading the inevitable, residents of the Li’l Abner mobile home park were ordered to evacuate their homes at midnight.
7News cameras captured demolition underway on parts of the property, Tuesday.
Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park officials said they are tearing their community down in order to begin a new development project in its place, one that will include a school, health care facility, and workforce housing.
But not everyone had left as of Tuesday afternoon. Barbara Calvo, who’s lived at the home park for over a decade, said she is not going down without a fight.
“I will fight until the end with the attorneys,” she said in Spanish. “There’s a lot of people who stay and we are fighting until the end until the attorney and judge decide.”
Calvo said she is waiting on a judge to make the final decision.
She’s not the only one fighting back. Dozens of residents vowed not to leave on Monday, protesting against the demolition even amidst abandoned homes, some with shattered windows and open doors, others not even on their proper foundations.
According to the owner, around 600 people have accepted a payout to move out.
Many mobile homes have already been torn down to make way for the new construction and many more are in the process of being demolished.
Residents who have stayed to fight the order say they have been left to live in unsafe conditions since receiving an eviction notice in November of last year. Some stated asbestos had been affecting the families left behind.
Vilma Matos said she will not accept the payout.
“Really bad emotionally because I am up every night thinking how I live in the future,” she said in Spanish.
Standing outside her home, Tuesday, Matos said she questions her future every day.
Vivian Hernandez is one of around 200 residents who have filed a class action lawsuit against the owners, Miami-Dade County and the City of Sweetwater, says her lawyers tell the group the fight is not over.
So for now, Hernandez and others are staying put.
“I’m going to stay until the end, until a lawyer tells me to leave” said a resident.
No word has yet been given on what actions the property owners will take.
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