A West Kelowna senior is close to losing everything as he falls through the cracks during the redevelopment of a mobile home park.
George Sun, 64, purchased a decrepit double-wide mobile home in the Shady Acres Mobile Home Park in 2012 for $1,000 cash.
The single father of two had just $600 to his name at the time and borrowed the remaining $400 from a fellow resident at the park who he had met at the food bank.
“When I bought this place, it wasn't livable," Sun said. "It was junk."
Over the next several months, he worked to make the home habitable.
Sun did some renovations himself and had friends and neighbours help out. A local electrician agreed to be paid in instalments of just a few hundred dollars per month. He estimates he spent more than $30,000 on materials and labour to get the home to its current cozy state.
New owners looking to redevelop
Since Sun purchased the property, the Shady Acres mobile home park itself has changed ownership. It is now owned by Kerr Properties, a Langley-based company seeking to redevelop the property at 2355 Marshall Rd. into a light industrial park.
The park contains 27 manufactured home units, down from 44 units when it was built in the 1960s. Sun is among 10 owners in the park, while the the remainder rent from Kerr Properties.
Sun’s unit is unregistered with the City of West Kelowna — his address does not exist on the city's tax roll — a situation he said he’s been trying to resolve for years. As a result, he is being treated as a renter in the developer’s relocation plan.
Kerr has offered to buy homes from owners at 110 per cent of BC Assessment's 2023 value while giving them 12 months notice. In the case of Sun, there is no provincial assessment on file, so he is being treated as a renter.
That means four months notice and compensation of one month rent plus $1,000. He will not receive anything for his home.
“I have no idea where I'll go,” said Sun, adding the thought of losing his home is devastating.
Sun is a refugee who escaped the Killing Fields of Cambodia, a genocide perpetrated by the communist Khemer Rouge that killed between 1.5 and three million people. Sun’s parents and siblings were among the dead.
After first fleeing to Thailand, he came to Canada in 1988.
He worked as a wine tour driver and inventory counter, raising his sons in the mobile home while working to improve it after his shifts.
He said he first approached the City of West Kelowna about having his home registered and getting a formal address created in 2018. City staff were unable to help him, Sun said, due to a lack of records.
He tried again twice in 2022 to have the property registered and added to the tax roll, but was told by city staff they could not help him because their records showed his address was destroyed by fire.
Sun said he was told by neighbours that the mobile home that was previously on his pad had burned.
“That one (the burned unit) they took it down. The old landlord took it down, and then they brought this building from somewhere — and then they sold it to me.”
Sun provided documents to Castanet showing he has been paying pad fees to Kerr Properties in addition to the original receipt of sale for the $1,000 purchase of the home.
He says he should be treated like the other owners in the park.
“I am not a tenant, they should treat me as an owner,” he said, noting that Kerr’s own documents list him as an unregistered “owner.”
“That is not right. And I never believe that — this is Canada. In Cambodia or the Philippines, they treat people like garbage and kick them out and don’t give them anything. But now it's happening in Canada and it’s really rocked me.”
'Hostile interactions' with park residents
Sun has contacted the office of MLA Ben Stewart, where he hopes to get help registering his unit. He's also trying to get help from the local seniors centre in finding housing.
He said he has been unable to get a hold of Kerr Properties to discuss his situation for the past year. He said Kerr tried to evict him after first taking ownership of the park, but backed off once he proved he was living in a serial-numbered manufactured home.
The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Castanet News.
At a public hearing Tuesday on the mobile home park’s rezoning, residents complained about a lack of communication from Kerr Properties. Council also heard from residents who feared they would be homeless.
Residents in just two of the 27 units in the park have found new housing.
Kerr Properties relocation manager Jessica Green said at the public hearing she has only spoken with or assisted about 20 per cent of the park’s residents.
“Due to very hostile interactions with some of the residents, I have not reached out on a personal basis," she said, noting she is happy to help anyone who contacts her.
"I’ve been threatened, my children have been threatened. So that would speak as to, no I am not reaching out to every person."
Difficult for Sun to understand
The day after the public hearing, Sun said he had trouble understanding its proceedings as English is his second language.
"Probably two per cent of what they were talking about, that's what I [understood]," he said.
While he worked while raising his sons, which have since moved away from the city, Sun is now on a disability allowance related to his PTSD and a number of seizures that made his wine tour driver job unsafe.
Interior Health wrote to West Kelowna city council last year to express concern about the residents of the park.
“We do not have any objections to the proposed rezoning, however, we are concerned about the loss of approximately 40 units of housing that are more affordable for families and individuals with lower socioeconomic position in the community," IH said in its letter.
"We are also concerned with ensuring equitable support for the affected residents."
The health authority urged the city and Kerr Properties to work together to provide more in-person support to residents of Shady Acres.
After the public hearing on Tuesday, West Kelowna council paused the rezoning application to give Kerr Properties more time to work with residents. Councillors were clear, however, that the rezoning and development will go ahead at some point.
