Erin Vaughn

My name is Erin Vaughn, and I bought my house in Arbor Village in Parma, MI, in February of 2020 with the money I inherited when my mom died. I wanted to put a roof over my kids’ head and get off of Section 8. We had six good months in the park.

Then the water shutoffs started and haven’t stopped. We had about 60 last year, some for multiple days. The park offered us $10 a month credit on our water bill for five months, when I am paying more than $60 a month for drinkable water.

The park’s water problems have ruined the water softener, the reverse osmosis system, two washing machines, multiple faucets, and now the water heater is full of sludge. Every time they need to work on the system and they do a pressure check, they would blow people’s pipes apart under their homes. It happened to us at least 4 times in the last year. It cost us hundreds each time.

They want to raise our rent over $100, plus raising the water bill and trash. And don’t get me started on the potholes. They are craters.

Now they’re trying to evict us. I have a number of chronic health issues. Before they hit hard, I paid my rent two weeks early every month until I lost my income. When that happened, I sent letters to the owner and manager, trying to be transparent, and explaining that I was working on getting disability. They never responded and even tried to use it against me. Never mind the fact that they were operating without a license for months if not a year.

If we can’t stay here, we have no one, and we will be homeless. Everywhere we call has no funding. All of the low-income housing requires more income than we have. Disability is a waiting game. I am trying to keep my house. It is not much but it is all we’ve got. The only place we have to sleep if we lose this is my car.