Low Income Housing Crisis Looms in Lexington Park
70 mobile home park tenants fear possible eviction

Dark Clouds Over White Oaks

ST. MARY'S TODAY
LEXINGTON PARK -- The senior couple sat at their home,
careworn, not knowing how long they can continue to
call the place their home.
As many as 70 families, including octogenarians,
septuagenarians and navy personnel who own homes and
rent space at the White Oaks are facing anguish amid
unconfirmed reports that the new owners are planning to
sell the land and they would be asked to vacate the
mobile home park abruptly.
"A lot of surveying has been going around here,"
Gordon James Welch, 77, told ST. MARY'S TODAY Monday
evening. "The neighbors are getting restless why the
surveyors are here."
His wife Elizabeth Welch was equally upset, not
knowing what's going on.
An undated and unsigned notice by the operators of
White Oaks have further heightened the anxiety of the
residents.
"Recently survey crews have been surveying FDR
Boulevard where it crosses Buck Hewitt Road and
passes by our community. It is anticipated FDR
Boulevard will one day be improved and will provide
access to our property and surrounding properties," the
owners-operators informed the tenants at the mobile
home park.
"Surveyors have been hired to determine the exact
location of water, sewer and electric lines within our
community and to plot where those lines exist in
relation to other improvements on the property," the
unsigned notice said.
The management informed the residents the White Oaks
is approximately 17 acres in size. However, it is made
up of 70 individual lots, common areas and storm water
drainage areas.
"These utility lines and areas have never been surveyed
in the past," the management told the tenants.
Residents are requesting the owners to be more
forthcoming as to what their plans are for the White
Oaks.
"Why can't they give us some kind of heads up. Rumors
sink ships," said Welch.