EVANSVILLE — Multiple families living in an Evansville mobile home park strewn with fire-destroyed units and mounds of trash and debris have been living without running water for the last several months after the out-of-state property manager they say they’ve never met failed to pay the bill.
Evansville and Vanderburgh County officials, as well as residents and a small army of volunteers, worked to clean up the property just off the 700 block of Oak Hill Road on Monday morning. The initiative came after a viral Facebook post about the condition of the area sparked a response from Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry’s office.
The city is familiar with this property after multiple previous cleanups, a citizen complaint to the state, and failed attempts to contact ownership about the living conditions.
Residents of the park told the Courier & Press about 10 families live there. One man who asked not to be named said he’d lived there about three years and never seen or spoken with the property manager.
He bought his trailer from another resident and fixed it up himself. When he moved in, the other resident gave him a piece of paper explaining how to pay lot rent.
Residents are told to go to Fifth Third Bank and make a deposit in an account tied to the property. They’re then given a receipt to prove they’re in good-standing. They don’t know the name attached to the account, and to a resident who spoke to the Courier & Press’ knowledge, no one has met the person they’re paying.
He said renting a lot costs $460 a month, or $550 if you don’t own your trailer. That’s a sharp hike from previous years, longer-term residents told him. Lots used to go for as low as $250, or even $175.
“I was talking to some other people and said, ‘Because we don’t know what (the property manager) even looks like, he may have come on the property,'” he said. “… He may have come in Volkswagen or a limo, we don’t know. Because nobody’s ever met them person-to-person.”
If a pipe busts at a trailer or something else goes wrong, it’s the residents, not the property manager, who fixes it, he said.
Each unit has their own CenterPoint meter, but the water and sewer is tied to one account that services the whole property. The resident said that’s currently shut off after ownership failed to pay the bill. It’s at least the third time that’s happened since he’s moved in, he said. And with no access to running water, a lot of people chose to stop paying rent.
In an email to the Courier & Press, spokesman Travis Guffey said the Evansville Water & Sewer Utility turned off the park’s water service in July 2025.
“It’s one thing to shut our electricity off, because we have (an individual) meter. But when you turn off the whole water, you’re affecting everyone,” the resident said. “… There are gas meters, but I don’t know of any one person who gets gas because we don’t trust the pipes and everything. … To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t want to live in here with gas because of how old these pipes are. We don’t need an explosion in here.”
Property is owned through an LLC registered in Florida, records show
The Courier & Press walked through the area during the cleanup Monday morning.
The park stands in the shadow of Oak Hill Cemetery. There’s no sign at the dirt-and-gravel entry, and the park doesn’t even appear to have a name. Multiple units gutted by fire sit near the front. Broken glass and frayed fiberglass insulation spill from their insides.
Farther back, a dingy teddy bear stared from a splintered pile of debris torn from the side of a home. At another lot, baby dolls with fractured heads hung from a makeshift gallows. And a spray-painted fence gate read “Love All.”
Other units, however, were well-kept. A few residents tidied items in their yards, while others joined the cleanup efforts and chatted with the volunteers who came to help. A resident said they appreciated the assistance, especially after others in the surrounding neighborhood started dropping their own trash in a Dumpster at the front of the lot, attracting vermin.
But some were upset when their faces appeared in the viral Facebook post. They didn’t want any trouble from the owner.
According to Vanderburgh County Assessor records, the property is owned through Lighthouse Communities 6, a limited liability company out of New Port Richey, Florida.
Records there list the registered agent as attorney Joseph Anthony Porcelli. The Courier & Press called a number for Porcelli listed on the website for the Florida Bar Association. The voicemail box was full, but a recorded message redirected callers to an AOL email address. Reporters reached out via that address Monday morning.
Evansville-Vanderburgh County Building Commissioner Johnny McCalister said the building commission has been out to the property for cleanups in 2022 and 2025. In 2022, the response came after a citizen complaint to the Environment Public Health Division of the Indiana Department of Public Health.
Public records show Lighthouse Communities 6 as having purchased the property in 2022. According to Courier & Press archives, the location has housed a mobile home park in some capacity since the 1950s.
McCalister said the building commission had a case on a home at the front of the park, but the department wasn’t necessarily aware of how bad some of the other mobile homes were.
Under his authority as building commissioner, McCalister issued an emergency raze order for all of the fire-damaged trailers on the property. He hopes to get a bid out this week and have a contractor working as soon as possible.
The cost for these cleanups in these instances is meant to be billed to the property owner. The city has tried, McCalister said. Efforts to reach the property owner, as well as mailed bills for previous work on the site, have gone unanswered and unpaid.
Now, the city is determining if an emergency vacate order is necessary for the residents living there. McCalister said the mayor’s office is working with the Department of Metropolitan Development to find housing options for the families.
“The mayor does not want to displace people that are living here,” McCalister said, “because this is all they have.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville residents deal with unfit conditions in mobile home park
Reporting by Sarah Loesch and Jon Webb, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
