EVANSVILLE — The city has set aside $15,000 to assist residents living in the neglected mobile home park off Oak Hill Road with moving expenses.
The Evansville City Council approved the appropriation Monday evening in a vote of 8-0. Ben Trockman, D-First Ward, was not at the meeting. All the money is coming from interest earned on American Rescue Plan Act dollars the city was awarded.
Kolbi Jackson, executive director of the Department of Metropolitan Development, said the fund is set up to help with expenses like rent and utility deposits. Those living in the mobile home park can access up to $1,000 each until Dec. 31, she said.
Jackson said the nonprofit HOPE of Evansville will distribute the money, and then return any unused cash to the city.
The mobile home park drew public attention last month after a viral Facebook post about the condition of the area sparked a response from Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry’s office. The city was already familiar with the property after multiple previous cleanups, a citizen complaint to the state, and failed attempts to contact ownership about the living conditions.
Families living in the mobile home park were dealing with a site strewn with fire-destroyed units and mounds of trash and debris. The building commission has since torn down 10 units under an emergency raze order.
The residents have also been living without running water for around nine months after property owner and attorney Joseph Anthony Porcelli, under the limited liability company Lighthouse Communities 6, failed to pay the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility bill, according to local officials.
Residents have individual CenterPoint meters, but the water bill and sewer is tied to one account for the entire park. EWSU shut off service to the property in July 2025. According to records obtained from EWSU by the Courier & Press, ownership owed $86,497 in unpaid water and sewer bills as of the end of March.
Ownership is thousands of dollars behind in property taxes as well, Vanderburgh County Assessor records show. Lighthouse’s last payment came in fall 2024. Since then, the LLC has amassed a $4,880 bill.
It doesn’t end there. Porcelli also owes the city money for clean-up efforts undertaken by the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Building Commission in 2022, 2025 and now again in 2026.
Multiple attempts by the Courier & Press to reach Porcelli have gone unanswered. City officials haven’t been able to speak to him either.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville sets aside money to help residents at mobile home park move
Reporting by Sarah Loesch, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
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