Resident of GCU mobile home park in Phoenix says university is demanding silence in exchange for help
One outspoken resident of a mobile home park that is owned and being redeveloped by Grand Canyon University says the university is trying to silence her in exchange for compensation.
Alondra Ruiz has lived at Periwinkle mobile home park for nine years and has been a central voice at protests and City Council meetings about the park’s closure. She said attorneys for the university asked her to sign a contract with a “non-disparagement” clause that would prohibit her from saying anything negative about GCU or Trellis, the housing nonprofit GCU hired to help residents relocate.
If Ruiz doesn’t sign the contract, she said she will not receive the compensation package GCU is offering her, including $10,000.
But she's made up her mind: She's not signing.
“I have my First Amendment right to freedom of speech, and I'd rather keep that over Grand Canyon University trying to silence me and my husband and my family,” Ruiz said at a news conference on Friday.
GCU spokesperson Bob Romantic said the university would not comment on Ruiz's individual circumstances and did not confirm whether or not she would still be eligible for the university's compensation package without signing the contract. He said no Periwinkle residents have been evicted and that the university continues to work with organizations to find solutions for each family's individual needs.
Romantic also said Trellis has helped relocate every family that has accepted its services.
"If someone is not willing to receive the help that is being offered, that is their decision," Romantic said.
Ruiz said she previously declined help from Trellis because she was told she would have to give up the title of her mobile home in exchange for assistance.
Romantic said some families that were able to relocate their mobile homes to other parks were able to receive assistance and retain their home's title. Ruiz's home is too old to move to another park.
Neither Trellis nor GCU immediately responded to questions about whether Ruiz and similarly situated residents were asked to give up their home titles in order to receive assistance.
For over a year, Ruiz and other Periwinkle residents have protested the closure of the longstanding mobile home park where over 50 families lived, some for decades. Grand Canyon University purchased the park in 2016 and officially closed it in May, though some residents still remain as they figure out their next move. The university plans to redevelop the land into student housing.
Periwinkle is one of several mobile home parks throughout the Valley that are set to close in the coming months, signaling the potential extinction of one of the region's last remaining forms of affordable housing. While many mobile home park residents own their home, they don’t own the land it sits on — land that has rapidly gained value in recent years as Arizona's real estate market has heated up.
If Ruiz signed the contract, which The Arizona Republic reviewed, it would prohibit her and her husband from “making any disparaging oral, written, printed, recorded or photographic statements or communications of any kind ... to any third-party concerning Landlord or Trellis and any of their agents, personal representatives, administrators, predecessors, successors and assignees.”
Ruiz and her husband plan to move out of the park on Friday but haven't been able to find anywhere affordable to rent. Instead, they'll be staying in a 27-foot camper, a significant downsize from their mobile home.
“We’re turning down what they’re offering us, which is really tough because we need it,” Ruiz said. "But I know it's the right thing to do morally."
Salvador Reza, a community organizer who advocates on behalf of Periwinkle residents, said Ruiz plans to write a book about her experience being forced to leave the mobile home park.
“They don’t want anybody to know what really happened here,” Reza said of GCU at the news conference. “And what really happened here was total disregard for our community.”
'We are going to be homeless': How mobile homeowners are being forced out in metro Phoenix
Juliette Rihl covers housing insecurity and homelessness for The Arizona Republic. She can be reached at jrihl@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @julietterihl.
Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mobile home park resident Alondra Ruiz says GCU trying to silence her
