Tenants battle vermin, sewage in investor-owned mobile home parks [View all]

Within days of moving into Waterside Mobile Home Park in Gibsonton, Jennifer Rivera Cruz said she broke out in hives. When the allergic reaction didn’t get better, she panicked. Overwhelmed, she covered her face with a blanket and wept.

As soon as the sun set, hordes of termites squirmed from the walls, swarming Cruz, her wife, Dena Guzman, and their three children.

“We would wake up every day at 2, 3 o’clock in the morning, feeling stuff walking in my hair, on my face,” Cruz said.

The couple said they begged their landlord to do something. They had just moved from a different park in Tampa, owned by the same company, where the infestation was just as bad. They decided to stop paying rent until the termites were exterminated.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/real-estate/2024/10/23/tenants-battle-vermin-sewage-investor-owned-mobile-home-parks/