In Issue 1, The Oracle explored the issues surrounding the conditions of the mobile park Sunset Village. Eight months later, The Oracle checks up on the situation.
Glenview’s mobile home park, Sunset Village, will be operating under a new owner, October Investment Properties, LLC. According to Chris Iosello, Sunset Village resident, the conditions of the park have been untenable for the past decade.
“The water’s still polluted, the streetlights are still out and the roads are still a mess,” Iosello said. “More houses have been removed that were sold at auctions.”
In order to control the severe conditions, Sunset Village residents attempted to make a cooperative purchase of the park; however, they were unable to buy the property.
Rising rent costs have forced many families out of the village. This uncertainty and instability of housing worries junior Sydney Iosello, daughter of Chris, who is still unsure if she’ll be able to continue her schooling at South.
“Worse comes to worse, I’ll have to transfer,” Sydney said. “That kind of interferes [with] my college choices.”
Chris described the unaltered conditions of the mobile home community from the last eight months.
“It’s not getting any better and it’s not getting any worse,” Chris said. “All the [Village of Glenview] officials have known about the situation here, in some cases, like with the bad water, for over a decade. They haven’t done much of really anything.”
According to Mike Vilches, president of the Sunset Village Residents’ Association, the future owner of the park, October Investment Properties, indicated that they are willing to ameliorate the conditions of the community.
“The ball’s in the court of the new owners,” Vilches said. “They have said at our meetings that they see Sunset Village being one of the best parks in the country. We’re there to help, to facilitate the new building of Sunset Village into something better.”
Chris explained the difference between Sunset Village and other, more prosperous communities in Glenview.
“If financial things that were happening to us were happening in a more affluent neighborhood, it would be front-page news on every paper,” Chris said. “Poor people really don’t have a voice, they don’t have the ability to hire a legal counsel, [or] to meet with the press very often.”
Vilches, although unaware of what exactly the future entails, stressed the strong sense of community among Sunset Village.
“We are part of the Glenview community,” Vilches said. “We’ve never seen ourselves apart from Glenview and we just hope that people will continue to support us in the coming years because sometimes we’re uncertain as to what’s really going to happen.”
