It’s a long-standing Calgary neighbourhood that now ceases to exist. Family Day marked the closure of the once beloved Midfield Mobile Home Park.
It was the last day for remaining residents to move out. What’s left of the 183 homes has been obliterated into fragments littering the properties and inside dumpsters.
Rudy Preidger called the park home for nearly five decades.
“What would it feel like if you got home and it was crushed down, how would you feel?” Prediger said.
LISTEN: A former Midfield Park resident reveals what he’ll do now that the park has closed
Tony Shwaluk and his wife, Josie, have moved their mobile home to another park. But the couple returned to Midfield on the last day to say goodbye.
“I thought we’d be here for the rest of our lives, but I guess it’s not to be,” Shwaluk said. “It’s a nightmare, I feel like crying.”
The city said failing infrastructure was too costly to repair and evicted the residents in May 2014. Some of the Midfield residents were financially crippled by the ordeal. Some homes couldn’t be moved due to their age and most couldn’t sell either.
Young couple Laine Sloan and Calan Lovstrom are forced to move back home with family because they still owe a mortgage on a home that’s no longer theirs.
“You come out of school, get jobs, buy a house — we did all that,” Lovstrom said. “We did all right things and now we get tossed to Square 1, but it was nothing we did to cause it.”
“You feel unwanted in Calgary and we don’t want to live in Calgary anymore.” Sloan said,
Crews will spend the next few months cleaning up what’s left of the neighborhood. City officials say there are no firm plans for the future the property.
Watch from December 2017: Residents of Midfield mobile home park in Calgary tried to fight city hall, but lost their battle against eviction on Friday. The homeowners were hoping they could stay and be compensated for their ordeal. Jill Croteau reports.