Napanee trailer park for homeless tenants may be forced to close

A Napanee man running a trailer park for homeless tenants is now in need himself.

With insurance on his property set to run out at the end of the year, Scott Drader has made a decision.

“I hate to say it but I’m trying to protect my own butt now.”

For Drader, that means getting rid of over a half dozen trailers on his property, but in doing so, many of the tenants will find themselves without a roof over their heads.

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, that’ll be out on the street by Saturday. And one’s three months, four months pregnant.”

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The bottom line for Drader is that either the trailers go or the insurance on his property won’t be renewed.

“I have until the 29th to have all of the trailers off, but this is the Christmas season, so basically I have to have my insurance company come in and take pictures of the place so that there’s no trailers on here.”

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Michelle Irish is staying in park, at least for now.

“He’s done more for me than anybody so far. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know what I’d be doing.”

Irish has only been in the park for just over a week now and says having someplace that’s warm and dry is one less thing to worry about.

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“Since Scott’s let me in here, I’ve been able to get up in the morning and go to things that I’m supposed to do,” Irish says.

“But when you’re out on the street, you can’t think of that stuff, you’re just wondering where am I going to put my stuff? Where am I going to shower? Where am I going to eat? That sort of thing.”

And while the future of the trailer park is still very much up in the air, municipal officials say they’re still open to working with Drader.

“We’re very sympathetic, we’re empathetic towards the individuals that are there,” says Max Kaiser, deputy mayor of Greater Napanee.

“We’re still looking forward to Mr. Drader approaching us to work with him, to try to get within the rules. If he came forward and asked for that or asked for something in that respect, a zoning change or an official plan amendment, our senior staff have open doors and they’re ready to talk, but Mr. Drader has to take the step.”

Greater Napanee town council meets Tuesday night when the topic will once again be brought up.