She has a home -- thanks to an 'angel'

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Aug. 16--Harriet Blackman, a 74-year-old who has lived in South Florida for 25 years, found herself on the edge of homelessness last year when a developer bought the Dania Beach trailer park where she had lived since 1988.

She looked for an apartment for months, aided by a Broward County social worker. But her fixed-income budget is built on $700 a month in Social Security and $50 a month in food stamps, and market rate rents had ballooned out of reach.

"The apartments they were calling affordable started at $700," said the Boston native, who retired from her job as a Service Merchandise gemologist three years ago when the company closed. "I was having a terrible time finding a place. I thought I was going to have to live under a bridge."

Florida laws require developers to offer displaced trailer park residents $1,350 to $3,750 to cover the cost of moving their existing trailer or to put toward a new trailer. Blackman's old trailer couldn't be moved without tearing it apart. And she couldn't afford a new one.

Hundreds of seniors are in the same position, advocates say.

HAPPY ENDING

Blackman's story has a happy ending, because her trailer park was bought by a developer who she says has a big heart. James Carr, a builder based in Coral Gables, gave Blackman nearly $20,000 to buy a used trailer. It's half the size of her old place, but she loves it.

"James Carr is my living angel," Blackman said.

Carr says Blackman gives him too much credit.

'State statute says we have to pay a few thousand to move her trailer or help her buy a new one. A few thousand and kick her out. That's the legal side, but sometimes you have to say, 'Let's do the right thing.' "

Carr helped many of the 127 residents in the trailer park, something Blackman says everyone was thankful for.

"It worked out for me and for a lot of us," she said.

"But this situation makes people lose their pride and self-respect," Blackman said. "They feel as if they are worthless. Do you think it was easy for me to call strangers and ask for help?"

And even though she counts herself among the lucky ones, her situation is still dicey.

She's been unable to find insurance for the new trailer, and she worries about hurricane season. She also frets that her new trailer park in Davie will eventually be bought and redeveloped.

"I tear my hair out worrying about that," she said. "It's not the golden years right now for me. I never thought I'd be in this position. The golden years were when we were younger and didn't have a care in our heads."

She'd love to move into a federally subsidized senior citizen development. She found one in Fort Lauderdale she loves. She'd have to pay only 33 percent of her income in rent, and electricity would be included. They evacuate residents during hurricanes. They have regularly scheduled activities.

A LONG LIST

Her name is on the list, but the wait is three to four years.

"You have to wait for people to die to get into these places, and that is not the way it should be," she said. "Tallahassee and Washington need to do more to help the elderly."

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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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