Developer evicts 140 people from Brandon trailer park

Over 140 people in Brandon are searching for homes after being evicted from their trailer park by a developer who purchased the land.

"It was — you go numb. You don’t really think at the time until you’ve had time to think about it," said Susan Klyne, a resident of Kingsway Kort, a trailer park that will soon be vacant.

Klyne said she was served with an eviction notice from a West Coast developer on Thursday. She has until March to leave.

"I feel I’m going to be homeless," said Klyne, who has lived in the park for 14 years.

Klyne is among dozens of residents whose trailers may be too old to move or sell.

Even if the trailer is moveable, Klyne said, every other trailer park in Brandon is full.

Tamara Pangborn is worried. She said she has to walk away from her trailer, which she still has a mortgage on.

Pangborn is currently off work and battling brain cancer.

"It’s almost like, now cancer is over here, and the trailer is over here, so I have to put my health in the back to try to deal with this," she said.

Pangborn has started a campaign called Occupy Kingsway to try and stop developers from evicting them or from developers evicting other people in the future.

"I don’t have $5,000 to $6,000 whether it is the moving costs to move our trailer. There’s nowhere to go. There’s no extra lots. We’re not going to move to another city or town. My husband has a full time job here," she said.

Pangborn has a Facebook group and an online petition on the go.

"We’re fighting. I’m saying that with a smile because we are fighting," she said.

Monday night, Brandon’s city council was set to vote on the possibility of rezoning the land, but regardless of the outcome, the developer can still evict the park’s residents.

Klyne wants to see a new law to protect people from similar evictions in the future.

Developer Brandon Evergreen Developments did not respond to calls for comment.