Residents press Sweetwater commissioners over Little Abner mobile-home displacements as litigation continues

Dozens of residents told the City of Sweetwater commission at its Feb. 2025 meeting that the planned redevelopment and buyouts at the Little Abner mobile-home park have left families without clear options and in some cases already displaced.

The speakers photographed personal losses and health effects and asked commissioners to intervene. “What is the response by the commission board for the people who are going to be displaced?” asked a resident who said she is a single mother and that her trailer was valued at $42,000. “There is nowhere else for them to go,” she said.

Carl Mueller of 275 Fontainebleau Boulevard, who identified himself as an activist for Little Abner, told the commission the redevelopment is producing “a human tragedy of biblical proportion,” saying, by his account, the park once housed about 900 families and that recent buyouts did not fairly compensate residents. “The least we can do is to help ease their suffering with a little bit more time and a little bit more money,” he said.

Yesenia Guadalupe, a volunteer canvasser, said four trailers already have been demolished and complained that the developer, CREI Holdings, is not maintaining vacant units that remain on site: “the lawns are not being cut, people are breaking into these trailers and stealing. People are squatting in these trailers.” She asked what the city and Miami-Dade County are doing to mitigate potential environmental hazards such as asbestos exposure from demolitions.

Other speakers described acute stress and, in at least one instance, a recent death among park residents they connected to the displacements. A speaker said protesters and residents have asserted they signed long buyout documents under duress.

The commission did not debate changes to policy or approve relief at the meeting. City Attorney (name not specified in public comment period) later noted that the mobile-home park matter is the subject of pending litigation. At the end of the meeting the city attorney said in a public report that “trailer park litigation is still ongoing. There was a motion to dismiss filed by the defense counsel for the City of Sweetwater, and that motion is still to be heard.”

Mayor Diaz and other commissioners told speakers the city’s ability to act is limited while the case is in court. Mayor Diaz said the city sympathizes with residents and is working behind the scenes to help where it can, but he also warned officials are constrained from publicly discussing active litigation.

Speakers urged several specific responses: higher buyout offers, more time before demolition, environmental testing and mitigation, help locating replacement housing or publicly owned land, and better policing of abandoned units. A number of residents said they had used savings to repair or buy trailers recently and asked the city to press the developer for larger settlements.

The commission took no formal action on the Little Abner speakers’ requests at the meeting. Several commissioners later acknowledged the legal limits on public comment while the litigation proceeds and directed staff to continue monitoring and to brief the commission in closed or appropriate forums consistent with counsel’s guidance.

The public-comment sequence on Little Abner occupied a large portion of the meeting and featured multiple residents, volunteers and community organizers who asked for formal city intervention and for the developer to provide additional compensation or safeguards.