FORT WORTH, Texas — Catherine DeLeon is rallying around her neighbors as they try to figure out how to make ends meet. Their new challenge comes because rent at their mobile home park in Fort Worth is jumping by hundreds of dollars.
DeLeon lives at the K-Mar Mobile Home Park on the city's southeast side. It's something she never expected to deal with even after winning her battle against stage 4 cancer.
"We're all older. I'm 65 this year, and so there are other people that are older than that," DeLeon said. "You don't expect to have this kind of stress in your life."
DeLeon is surrounded by neighbors who are all struggling with their finances. When she moved into the mobile home park five years ago, she said it was affordable.
But now, the residents have new owners, who DeLeon said, notified them about rent going up.
"We got an email concerning the increase in the rent last September, notifying us that it was going to go up," she said. "Effective October, giving us barely a month advance. It went up about 55% in that one-month notification that we had."
DeLeon told WFAA they've already had close to a dozen neighbors move out who could not afford the increase. When she moved in, DeLeon believes K-Mar was at 100% capacity.
Now, just to pay rent, DeLeon is doing whatever it takes to make ends meet.
"I have two part-time jobs that I take in to get some extra money so I can afford the increases," she said.
K-Mar's parent company owns other mobile home parks in North Texas. WFAA reached out to K-Mar but got no response.
One of the renters shared an email with WFAA reportedly from the new property manager. It made mention of being transparent, property improvements, new water meters being installed, and keeping an open line of communication with the families living in the privately-owned mobile home park.
After living at K-Mar Mobile Home Park for 17 years, Lee Smith said she is moving. Her rent jumped by $200 a month. She's tried repeatedly to reach the new owners.
"I have loved living here. We are people with feelings. We have real issues. We need to be heard. We need to have our questions answered in a satisfactory and real manner. It's not happening," Smith said. "We cannot communicate with these people. It's like they are afraid of us. Do we look like an insurrectionist group? I don't think so."
Smith is keeping the faith their landlord will eventually respond. She also hopes the new landlords can explain why their utilities also suddenly increased since they've started managing the property.
"Last month, my utilities increased by $90 over the previous month. I was in the hospital or in rehab for three weeks during that time. I didn't use any electricity or water or anything. Nor did my cat," said Smith.
Smith has held prayer meetings at her home about the rent increase. She hopes that the owners will try to understand the financial problem that she and her neighbors now face.