Mobile home park closure is a quiet disaster fueling Miami's rent crisis
With affordable housing options ever more elusive, one Miami-Dade suburb is experiencing another Florida trend that's making the issue even worse: the disappearance of mobile home parks. A staple of housing throughout the state, they have long provided working-class families and those living on a fixed income an affordable solution to homeownership.
Li'l Abner Mobile Home Park in Sweetwater is the latest example of this problem.
Approximately 3,000 people — roughly 15% of Sweetwater's population — lived at the park at the beginning of 2025. Now the residents are facing eviction by CREI Holdings, the park's owner, which plans to develop the land to build affordable multifamily housing.
The harsh reality is many who live in Li'l Abner now won't be able to afford to rent the new apartments once they're built. The median income of a household in Sweetwater is $4,600 per month while rent for a one-bedroom apartment typically starts at $2,194, according to the Miami Herald. These rental prices are out of reach for many current residents.
The end of Li'l Abner is part of a troubling pattern emerging in Miami-Dade County and beyond. Since 2011, approximately 183 mobile home parks have closed in Florida, according to Florida Mobile Home Relocation Corporation and the Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
From a development perspective, these parks represent ideal investments. They are relatively cheap to buy and prime locations for multifamily units or commercial projects. For residents, however, it's their worst nightmare come true when their community gets sold.
Many of the mobile homes are cemented into the ground, making relocation structurally and financially prohibitive. Even if owners could move their homes, the closure of other mobile home parks in South Florida leaves limited options.
Florida law requires municipalities to determine if viable alternative housing exists for mobile-home owners before taking actions. Li'l Abner residents have filed a class action lawsuit against CREI Holdings, the city of Sweetwater and Miami-Dade County arguing that law was violated, the Miami Herald reported.
The Urban Group, a development management company overseeing Li'l Abner's property transition, gave Li'l Abner residents six months' notice in November 2024 and a sum of money that many park residents feel is insufficient compensation for pushing them out of their homes. Florida law requires developers offer $3,000 for single-wide homes and $6,000 double-wide homes to help offset relocation costs. The Miami Herald reported the company offered a structured buyout payment, starting with $14,000 for residents leaving by Jan. 31 and $7,000 for those who moved out by April, while those who stay until May would receive the minimum required by Florida law.
The stipends are inadequate against the reality of Miami's rental market costs. Even with six months' notice and a few thousand dollars in financial assistance, finding affordable housing feels like a Sisyphean task.
The Urban Group, a development management company overseeing Li'l Abner's property transition, told the Miami Herald the mobile home park will be converted to 'affordable and workforce housing.' But with many of the park's residents on limited incomes, and unable to afford a $2,000 a month in rent — especially those on fixed incomes — the result is displacement sold as progress, rather than genuine affordable housing preservation.
Li'l Abner's closure isn't just another mobile home park being reimagined by developers. It's a symptom of Miami's affordability crisis. If Miami-Dade continues erasing affordable housing from its landscape, the housing crisis will accelerate faster than new affordable housing units can be built. And as so often happens, low-income residents will be the ones ultimately paying the price.
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