Mobile home residents forced to leave

Last Christmas, residents of the El Portal Mobile Home Park near Yosemite were asked to leave their homes with only a few months notice and zero compensation even though they owned their homes.

The land the homes were on, however, belong to the National Park Service, which residents were paying rent to for years.

The Park Service has different future plans for the site and claimed the power lines were hazardous, so instead of repairing them, residents were told the mobile home park was being shut down.

Carmen Kohlruss and I were there to document the last day residents could stay before the power was shut off.

Longtime El Portal Trailer Park residents Neal and Nancy Dawson take a moment in their front room to take in the panoramic views of the surrounding canyon hills before moving out for good on Sunday, March 13, 2022.

Lifelong El Portal Trailer Park resident Luke Harbin sits in the front yard of his mother’s mobile home before getting ready to move out for good on Sunday, March 13, 2022.

Terri Nishimura stands in her kitchen while packing up belongings to move out of the El Portal Trailer Park near Yosemite National Park on Sunday, March 13, 2022.

Mobile homes line a quiet street in the El Portal Trailer Park near Yosemite National Park on Sunday, March 13, 2022. Residents are being forced to move by the National Park Service, which owns the land the homes are on.

Neal Dawson pushes his living room chair into the back of his pickup truck while packing up to move out of the home he and his wife Nancy have lived in for years in the El Portal Trailer Park on Sunday, March 13, 2022.

A road closed sign sits at the entrance to the El Portal Trailer Park near Yosemite National Park on Sunday, March 13, 2022. Residents are being force to leave by the National Park Service which owns the land.