To Scottsdale, Arizona Residents:
Residents of the Wheel Inn
Ranch Trailer Park in South Scottsdale are being evicted from their homes and
forced to relocate to other housing. Many have lived in this park for decades
and over the years have helped to create the City of Scottsdale we all love.
Most of them are now elderly, disabled, low income and, for the first time
frightened of what their future holds for them.
The park’s new owner has
told the residents they must be gone by the end of January to make way for his
future development. Unfortunately, most of the park’s mobile homes are too old
and fragile to be moved, so owners will be forced to abandon their homes, even
though many residents have sunk their life savings into buying them and adding
extensions to them. Even the homes that can be moved will be expensive to move,
plus all external improvements (such as porches and carports) must be left
behind.
Councilwoman Kathy
Littlefield has worked with the City’s Community and Human Services staff to
coordinate assistance from city, state and federal agencies. This includes the
Veteran’s Administration, since some of these residents are veterans or spouses
of veterans all the way back to World War II. However, this assistance only
scratches the surface of what is needed to insure our fellow residents are
safely relocated into housing they can afford by the January
deadline.
That is why we are
organizing this fundraiser and asking for your help. To insure all funds are
properly accounted for and will be spent where they will do the most good, we
have put together a committee of community leaders who will oversee the
collection and disbursement of funds. Everyone involved in this effort is a
volunteer: no one is getting paid, and all of the money collected will go to
help the Wheel Inn Ranch residents. The committee members are: Former City
Councilman Bob Littlefield, City Councilwoman Kathy Littlefield, co-chair of the
Scottsdale Coalition, Nancy Cantor, South Scottsdale neighborhood activist and
non-profit executive, Cindy Hill, and Tonolea neighborhood activist, Jim
Heather. Advisors to the committee are City Councilman Guy Phillips and
Coronado neighborhood resident Martha Seaman, a Deacon with the Episcopal
Diocese of Arizona and President of the Valley Interfaith
Project.
You can make a tax
deductible contribution to help through "Arizona LEOS," an IRS-approved 501c3
charity which sponsors an Aging Safely program. If you donate online via PayPal
please check "Add special instructions to the seller:" and write "Wheel Inn
Ranch" in the box provided when you checkout. To contribute by check, make it
out to "Arizona LEOS" and mail it to Wheel Inn Ranch Fund, 8414 E. Vista Drive,
Scottsdale, AZ 85250. Please write "Wheel Inn Ranch" on the memo line and
include your email address so we can save postage costs and email you a
receipt.
The people at Wheel Inn
Ranch are proud and independent folks who had secured a home and quiet lifestyle
that met their needs and that they could afford. Now that their park is being
destroyed, they do not know what to do or even how to ask for help.
So we are asking for them.
Please help in assisting these Scottsdale citizens who, through no fault of
their own, now stand in such urgent and desperate need.
Thank you so very
much.
Bob & Kathy
Littlefield
