Busloads of Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park residents in white T-shirts packed a rare six-judge hearing on Aug. 28, as Miami-Dade County courts pressed pause on immediate evictions, allowing more than 200 Sweetwater, Florida, families to stay in their homes—for now. 

Judges questioned two key points in the long saga of the decades-old mobile home park that is being redeveloped for “affordable” housing: whether the park’s owner properly served change-of-use notices and whether the residents’ homeowners’ association (HOA) is valid.

The case centered on a motion for summary judgment filed by park owner Consolidated Real Estate Investments Holdings (CREI), led by real estate investor Raul Rodriguez, seeking to evict residents without a trial. In response, the residents’ attorney, David Winker, filed a cross-motion, arguing that the landlord failed to comply with Florida’s mobile home statute—most notably by not providing the required notice of change of use to the residents’ HOA. 

Under Florida’s Mobile Home Act, if a park owner intends to change the use of the land, they must give at least six months’ written notice to both individual homeowners and the recognized HOA. That notice triggers certain rights for residents, including the right of first refusal, which allows the HOA to purchase the property on the same terms offered to outside buyers.

Roughly 200 eviction cases are pending, affecting as many as 1,500 residents. If the judge sides with the landlords, the court could issue writs of possession, allowing the sheriff to forcibly remove tenants from their homes. 

“This isn’t a normal eviction,” Winker told Prism ahead of the hearing. “I have people in there that paid $150,000 for their trailer. They can’t move it. There’s property rights at stake here.”

The core of CREI’s argument is that the Li’l Abner Homeowners Association, formed in 2008, is not properly constituted under Florida State Statute since members do not pay dues or have consistent meetings. But tenants who rent plots of land from CREI for their mobile homes dispute this argument, pointing to documents they say prove otherwise. These documents include signed affidavits from the HOA’s first president, Regla Gonzalez, and from Victor Real Jr., the association’s treasurer since 2017; the HOA’s bylaws; signed notices from CREI to tenants dated from 2013 through 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2024 acknowledging the HOA’s existence; and an August 2008 Miami Herald article that details Gonzalez’s plight to solidify the HOA. 

“Their argument is that it’s not legit,” Winker said. “To use this against us to say, where’s your proof of this and that? It’d be like me saying, ‘Hey, where’s your high school diploma?’”

CREI did not respond to Prism’s request for comment. In response to Winker’s motion for a rehearing, CREI attorneys filed a response saying, “The Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park Homeowners Association, Inc.’s (the “HOA[’s]”) latest attempt to delay these proceedings, and relitigate unfavorable rulings, again falls flat. After months of litigation, and over a month to prepare its summary judgment response, the HOA has now had final summary judgment entered against it. Its case is over. The time for new witnesses, new affidavits, and new evidence has passed.”

In a related class-action lawsuit challenging the park’s closure, Judge Jason Dimitris ruled on Aug. 26 against the association’s standing, saying the tenants lacked sufficient evidence, such as dues and meeting minutes, to prove the existence of their HOA under Florida State Statute. According to the Florida Condominium Act, HOAs are supposed to keep certain records for up to seven years. 

Winker filed a motion for rehearing, bolstered by Gonzalez’s affidavit, which was not included in the initial hearing. During Aug. 28’s hearing, judges held their decisions on the evictions pending Dimitris’ ruling on the rehearing, which was denied on Sep. 3. Regardless, Winker said that it would be a long process before tenants are evicted, pending an appeals process to the 3rd District Court of Appeals.

Inside the courthouse, Miguel Herrera, a Li’l Abner resident since 2014, described the last year as destabilizing. He said residents were misled and pressured by CREI’s relocation deal to abandon their belongings.

What we are questioning is the arbitrary, fraudulent, and mafioso-like method of deceiving people.

Miguel Herrera, Li’l Abner resident

“They took advantage of our humility, they took advantage of our lack of knowledge, they took advantage of everything,” Herrera said. “What we are questioning is the arbitrary, fraudulent, and mafioso-like method of deceiving people.”

If the tenants lose their case and are evicted, Herrera said he’ll have nowhere to go.

The backstory

In November 2024, park management announced plans to clear Li’l Abner for a subsidized housing redevelopment, ordering residents to leave by May 19, 2025. The move threatened roughly 6,000 people across 900 homes, many of which are units too old to relocate. Management and its agent offered staged payouts, $14,000 to leave by mid-January, $7,000 by April, and $3,000 by May, in addition to statutory moving stipends. But residents say the payouts don’t come close to replacing what they’d lose: paid-off structures, community ties, and stability.

CREI has touted future “affordable” units—with portions reserved at less than or equal to 80% of the area’s median income (AMI), others at 120% AMI, and 40% age-restricted for seniors—and promised current tenants priority. But families and advocates argue that the new rents won’t be truly affordable for families now paying around $1,000 a month for space rent. 

Amid rising fear and vacant lots, residents filed a class-action alleging inadequate notice and misrepresentations about redevelopment plans, while mutual aid networks and near-daily protests coalesced under the demand, “Mas tiempo, mas dinero,” more time, more money.

The group’s solidarity is palpable. When Winker stepped into the courtroom on Aug. 28, rows of residents rose to their feet and applauded, a rare show of emotion in a space that quickly turned contentious during the seven-hour hearing. Judges repeatedly reminded the crowd to keep order and pressed both sides on the crux of the case: notice. Judges cautioned that it’s difficult to argue a total lack of notice when hundreds of residents have been present at protests, and the proceedings have drawn sustained media coverage. 

“If you’re evicted for a change of use, you have the right to buy. But [CREI] are trying to use the courts to get around that,” said Winker. “So I have faith that we’re going to get the court to see that they need to do this.”

A dangerous precedent

Beyond Li’l Abner, Winker warned that the case could set a dangerous precedent. If courts allow landlords to invalidate HOAs retroactively, by demanding decades-old records that exceed the seven-year requirement, other tenant protections statewide could be undermined.

“It’s an important precedent for other cases,” said Winker. “It’s setting forth a blueprint for owners to avoid the statutory obligation that we’re talking about. All you do is come in and attack the homeowners’ association because it’s not legitimate, even though you treated it as legitimate the entire time.” 

Li’l Abner HOA representative Enrique Zelaya said the association launched in 2008 when Gonzalez went door to door to secure the two-thirds vote required under state law; today, the association is led by a Cuban-trained attorney known in the park as Dr. Zenén. Zelaya argued that the HOA’s low profile is being misread as nonexistence because the park office historically handled functions that condo HOAs might manage, and so residents were never charged dues.

“We want a trial by jury because it’s logical. … They want a trial with a judge because they want the judge to only consider the rights of the landowner,” said Zelaya. “What we don’t want is to be treated like animals and leave just like that, because big business says so.”

Zelaya also described what he sees as contractual whiplash. Some residents bought homes in Li’l Abner weeks or days before the Nov. 12, 2024, change-of-use notice, with contracts that he said promised no zoning change. One tenant even signed a lease two days after the Nov. 12 eviction notice. 

“Can you imagine? It’s crazy,” said Zelaya.

The conflict has exposed deep political and economic ties. Rodriguez, the head of CREI whose family fortune is rooted in Miami real estate, has given significant campaign contributions to local leaders in Sweetwater and has received millions in public subsidies for the project. Sweetwater’s mayor, who initially claimed surprise at the Li’l Abner evictions, sponsored a 2022 resolution channeling funds to CREI, according to county records. 

Residents accuse local politicians of siding with developers and police, who have harassed demonstrators with threats, tickets, and even physical force. Tensions boiled over when police violently arrested Vivian Hernandez, a resident leader, in 2024, sparking outrage and protests demanding her release.

A zoning hearing was held on Sept. 8 in which commissioners discussed whether to approve CREI’s proposed change of the Li’l Abner site from Mobile Home Residential to what they are calling “Flagler City Center District.” Commissioners decided to delay the vote until Oct. 29, after the developer’s attorney requested more time to adjust “development program parameters.” Winker spoke at the meeting, requesting a Florida State Statute-mandated study on the relocation of these residents, despite the city’s decision not to conduct one. 

In response to Zelaya’s remarks saying the commission should not approve the rezoning, Commission President Marcos Villanueva said, “We’re not here to limit anybody’s speech, but we are here to adhere to the law, and as much as we’d love to talk about, unfortunately, we’re very limited on what we can say, because you guys decided to sue us, so it’s very difficult for us to talk.”.  

If approved, the park would be set for a high-intensity, mixed-use district, clearing a key hurdle for large-scale redevelopment of the site. 

A destabilizing reality

Dania Chaviano, who bought her trailer for $45,000 in 2012, said she remodeled the entire home in 2020, spending about $60,000. 

“Now it has to be torn down,” said Chaviano. “That’s a really ugly, really sad thing that hurts a lot.”

Rolando Amor, an 85-year-old tenant who has lived at Lil’ Abner for 38 years, called the land owner’s decision to evict longtime residents “disrespectful.” 

“We’re waiting for a just reward,” said Amor. “I just want to stay in Sweetwater.”

Despite setbacks, Winker remained optimistic.

“Everyone’s pushing as hard as they can to make this go as fast as they can, but you’re taking away people’s property,” said Winker. “These people, in my opinion, have a clear right to purchase this property. And I think that the evidence shows that’s what the landlord is trying to avoid.”

Editorial Team:
Sahar Fatima, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor