Chuck & Carol

TOLEDO – Nov. 17 marked the final day anyone lived at Riverside Mobile Home Park, 18 City Park Avenue.

In May the park was condemned for code violations, and by late November demolition on the park had begun. 

Previous residents have, for the most part, found other accommodations, but members of the last two households of the park are still in the midst of transition. 

Carol Kelly, 59, a previous resident of the park, now sits in a motel doing much of what she did at Riverside — perusing different long-term housing options without much change.

“At least we’re not going to be homeless for Christmas,” Kelly said. 

After being removed from the park, Kelly and her husband, Charles “Chuck” Parker, 66, went back to their condemned trailers to retrieve items they left behind. 

For all their efforts to leave Riverside from May to November, the transition was still difficult for the couple, both of whom live with disabilities. Parker suffers from chronic back pain and Kelly has been rendered immobile, living with a number of chronic conditions. 

“It was stressful, trying to get everything loaded up, and then them telling us, ‘Alright, it’s time to go,’” Parker said. 

When the couple was encouraged to leave Riverside, their home for the past five years, they only took a portion of what they had stored up, and chose to come back to retrieve the rest.

“We had to leave a lot of shit behind, and come back the next day,” Parker said. “There wasn’t nothing going on, so we’re able to get another load.”

Heirlooms were the most important items the couple salvaged upon their return to the condemned location, including a family Bible that was over a hundred years old.

“This was in the Bible,” Kelly said, holding up a postcard from her grandmother from 1912, with other writings and entries dating back into the 19th century. 

“I mean stuff like this, we don’t know what we lost.”

Somewhere around Thanksgiving demolition began, and the homes of Parker, Kelly and their son were no more, putting an end to their off-hour salvage missions. 

Motel life

Three dogs and a kitten now sleep next to Kelly in a single motel room with her husband and three other cats hidden amongst boxes of packed household items. Around mid-December, the couple grew worried about their finances, so they have tried to consolidate their space.

But the family’s concern has been chiefly with keeping everyone together. 

One of their first objectives was to find their semi-domesticated deer, Lotus Rayne, which they haven’t located since the household was removed from Riverside. 

“I’ve seen footprints,” Parker said, but admitted, “I haven’t seen her.”

A few doors down, Kendall Parker, the couple’s 35-year-old son, has another of the family’s dogs.

Before Kendall Parker left Riverside, his main qualm with the mobile home park was the infestation of rats. 

In September, Riverside’s gas and water were turned off, with electricity as the last utility the family was able to use ahead of the demolition. 

But it seems the family has moved from one uncomfortable situation to the next. At the motel, the family complains of rooms left in disrepair and also a cockroach infestation.

“We went from rats at the trailer park to cockroaches in the hotel,” Kelly said, exhausted. “I was excited to get here because we’ve been having to take showers with jugs of water,” but Parker said the showers were cold and had a leak.

“You know the old saying about out of the frying pan into the fire,” Kelly said. “Yeah, it seems like we never get out of the fire. We’re constantly in the fire.”

January is the last month the family thinks they’ll be able to afford the motel, and as a backup living situation, they have purchased a small Nomad camper to hitch to Chuck’s truck. 

A local church has offered for the family to set up on their property until they can find another living situation. 

“It’s gonna’ be quite a tight fit, but we’ll see what happens,” Chuck Parker said.

The instability with the move had the family thinking they might end up without a place to stay, but they’ve been able to work things out as best they can for now. 

Environmental concerns 

Back at Riverside, piles of rubble sat where the old mobile homes used to lay in disrepair, and an impermanent fence formed a formal barrier to warn visitors not to enter the demolition site. 

Cars with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pulled up with tight lips about what they were doing, but in the stillness, a cat with a clipped ear became friendly with the government workers. 

A stoic man unwilling to pet the cat, unwilling to give his name or say what he was there for, stood in silence as the gray feline rubbed against him in the cold.

On-site-coordinators with the EPA from Ann Arbor, Mich. came down a few moments later with a Lumex mercury analyzer to test for traces of mercury amongst the rubble.  

“We have this piece of equipment,” said Mellisa Powers-Taylor, one of the on-site coordinators with the Ann Arbor EPA, clarifying why they were in Toledo. After calling their direct supervisor, the coordinators from Ann Arbor freely shared that the Toledo EPA didn’t have the Lumex to test for mercury, so they were there to help out. 

Days earlier, Chuck had mentioned his own worries about toxic materials in Riverside. 

“I had one of them old school blood pressure cuffs; it’s got that big tube of mercury in it,” he said, and mentioned other medical supplies with mercury he wasn’t able to relocate before demolition began. 

Lead paint, asbestos tiles and mercury made up the bulk of Chuck Parker and Kelly’s concerns about the mobile home park they left, “so we called the EPA,” he said.

After getting out of the space, the two reflected on the potential toxicity of what they had been living in for a number of years. 

Three dogs and four cats died in the span of five years they lived at Riverside. By Kelly’s account, more pets died at Riverside in those five years than in their past 20 years of being pet owners. 

“Mine got thyroid cancer. His got a cancerous tumor,” she said, referring to Kendall’s dog. 

The EPA visited the park on Dec. 12, 2025. 

Since then, the Toledo Free Press has reached out to the Ohio EPA, Regional EPA and the City of Toledo to hear the results of the tests on the area, but has not heard back.

Life after Riverside: Susan

After seeing the gray cat interact with EPA workers, the Toledo Free Press was reminded of another previous resident of the park, Susan Luttrell, 70, who had lived towards the front of the park with her (approximately) eight cats.  

“I’m not well. Too much STRESS,” Luttrell wrote to the Toledo Free Press, when asked how she was doing. 

After leaving the park, her car broke down, and she was staying with a friend until she could find a better situation. 

On the day of the removal, Luttrell left without any of her cats, fully intending to come back for them, but on the day of the move, she said her cats were too frightened by the commotion.

Gray fur and a clipped ear were defining characteristics of her eldest cat, Blue, which she was glad to hear about. 

Every day or so, Luttrell finds a way to get to the temporary gate and call her cats loudly, “Kitties!” And then leaves them with an offering of food. 

“I could go without food for a few days, you know? But I can’t make them cats do that,” she said. Initially, Luttrell’s plan was to buy another trailer, then take cats with her, but when she got out to look at the trailer, “there was no furnace in it.”

Without extra money for a furnace, Luttrell, who, like Parker and Kelly, lives off of a fixed income, had to pass on getting into another trailer situation. 

“I’ve looked at some other trailers too, but they need so much work that you can’t live in them,” she said. “I’m probably going to end up in an apartment building.”

Earlier in December, Luttrell mentioned she had applied for support with the Area Office on Aging, but couldn’t remember what she had applied for. 

Luttrell’s situations reflects a larger trend noted during a lead and homelessness committee meeting held in Toledo City Council Chambers. 

“In 2025, we are going to serve 2,325 individuals,” said Ann Ebbert, the president and CEO of the Cherry Street Mission, a major homeless shelter in Toledo, during the meeting. “That is over a 100 percent increase in people that we are serving in only four years.”

Ebbert estimated 31 percent of the new influx of homeless individuals at the mission were over the age of 55, and resolved, “senior citizens experiencing homelessness is growing faster than we can maintain.” 

“85 percent of those who are new to us were first-time homeless,” she said, but Luttrell experienced this reality firsthand. 

The 70-year-old has had her life fragmented, unsure of what she will be able to do next. 

“I feel so bad. I feel so needy. I’ve never been homeless in my life,” she lamented, and recalled the experience of seeing what was left of her mobile home. “I just started balling like a little baby, to see that rubble like that.”

Luttrell said she’s called the Humane Society to let them know about her cats, and in the meantime, she continues to feed them until her situation changes. 

Who is responsible?

In May 2025, the City of Toledo condemned the park for code violations, and since then, the Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board, United Way 211, Unison Health and Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) have tried to help relocate residents. 

Most residents were able to find other housing, but ABLE requested an extension for relocation of the remaining households, citing disability-related needs.

By November, the only households remaining on the property were those with disabilities.

Squatters had taken up casual residence, but made themselves scarce when city officials cleared the area for demolition crews to begin their work. 

“At some point, the property is either going to be purchased by somebody who’s going to have to pay all this,” said David Mann, the president and CEO of the Lucas County Land Bank, referencing the outstanding debts the owner of the park owes the City of Toledo and Lucas County. 

The city is owed $281,558.24 for past-due water, sewer and storm charges according to Rachel Hart, the director of communications for the City of Toledo.

The county is owed $70,272.24 for property taxes, not including individual trailers. 

Those two totals, along with the remediation cost of $205,000 for the demolition of the mobile home park, will be rolled into a lump sum, roughly $556,830.48, and presented to the owner of the park, “RIVER SIDE MOBILE HOME ESTATES (RSMHE) LLC.”

RSMHE organized in 2016 with Gustavo Sanchez listed as a “Member” representing the Indiana based LLC. Since then, RSMHE has listed four additional names representing the company, a new one each time it needs to renew its registration with the state of Indiana. 

The latest registration with the state of Indiana was for the years 2024/2025, and listed “Ernie Garcia” as an “Authorized Agent” representing the company. 

“Ernie” is a familiar name to Parker and Kelly, both of whom have been in contact with the individual throughout their stay at Riverside. Parker believes the owner of Riverside to live somewhere around the Chicago area, and the phone number Parker uses to connect with Garcia has a Chicago area code. 

Within Ohio, the only registration document on hand was a copy of the 2022/2023 Indiana registration document, which names “David Garcia” as a representative “Member” of the company. 

As a part of the Ohio documentation, “a brief summary of the corporate purpose(s) to be exercised within Ohio” read, “to run our mobile home park without tenants thinking we are a scam.”

The journalized dismissal of ERNIE GARCIA dba RIVERSIDE MOBILE HOME ESTATES vs. CITY OF TOLEDO reads: “On Oct. 17, 2025, Plaintiff Ernie Garcia filed a complaint, alleging the City had ‘issued baseless Notices of Public Nuisance and Orders to Correct[,]’ and were ‘threatening immediate demolition’ of ‘properties located at 18 City Park Welter, Toledo, Ohio[.]’”

A brief summation of the ruling in Lucas County Common Pleas reads, “As the City persuasively argues, Garcia ‘does not present himself to be an attorney and may not represent a corporation even if he is a member of that corporation.’”

Judge Joseph V. McNamara officially signed the ruling on the day of relocations, Nov. 17, giving some context to the potential reason why the relocations were deferred beyond earlier deadlines for residents of the park.  

The phone numbers Chuck Parker said he used to contact the owner of the park have not been responsive to questions or comments from the Toledo Free Press, but Jon Fisher, “Mr. Landman,” a realtor out of Champaign County, Ill., said he listed the property for sale months ago, on behalf of the owner, for $750,000. 

“We have two very interested parties. Unfortunately, no one from the City of Toledo has responded to any of our communication requests to begin negotiations,” Fisher said.

“Everything is 100 percent dependent upon the city, as they have to approve of the next buyer because of the fact that the property has been condemned. So when they don’t respond to us, we’re kind of just in a holding pattern.”

Fisher said the last time he reached out to the City of Toledo was in the third week of December, and he has not heard back. 

At the time, both potential buyers were still interested in the property, and the demolition of the mobile home park was not a deal breaker for them. “Those trailers were probably going to be demolished anyway, so it’s not that that big of a deal,” Fisher said. 

He noted that one of the parties reached out to the city investigator, one of the deputy mayors, the mayor and to the Land Bank without hearing back. 

“They’re very large players that have the financial capacity to come in and redevelop,” Fisher said. 

It’s unclear how the city will respond to the actions of the absentee landlord who left the property in disrepair. 

“This is what we call the ‘pay-it-up or give-it-up strategy,’” Mann said. “This owner can pay up all the bills that he’s left delinquent, or if he doesn’t, he probably is going to give up ownership of that land.”

“If it’s foreclosed, because none of those bills have been paid, then at the end of the foreclosure, it would be transferred to us,” Mann said, speaking on behalf of the Lucas County Land Bank. 

Mann did not want to speculate what the property could be used for and said, at this point, “it’s just too hypothetical.”

The Toledo Free Press reached out to the city of Toledo for comment on Fisher’s response, but at this point have not heard back.