AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin is providing a relocation assistance program for students who reside at its mobile home park near Lake Austin Boulevard.
The park contains 77 mobile homes owned by UT Austin students who lease space there while attending the University. More than 60 percent of the spaces are leased to single graduate students. The approximately 50-year-old park is located next to Brackenridge Apartments, one of the University’s family housing complexes.
The condition of the mobile homes and the utilities infrastructure prompted the University to undertake a recent study, which resulted in a decision to close the mobile home park. To minimize the impact closing the park will have on its tenants, the division of housing and food services at UT Austin has worked with the tenants’ association and other student leaders to provide a program of relocation funding and assistance. The plan announced today is the result of extensive discussions with representatives of the Mobile Home Park Students’ Association.
The program provides financial incentives and other assistance through a series of options for the tenants. Each tenant with a legal contract for space who chooses to move from the mobile home park by Oct. 31, 1997, will receive $7,500 in relocation assistance. Those who move between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 1997, will receive $3,000 in relocation assistance. Financial assistance expires after Jan. 1, 1998. In all instances, ownership of the mobile homes will remain with the tenants, except for those the University is asked to retain because of age and condition. The last expiration date for any contract now in effect is March 1, 1998, the date on which the park will be closed.
In addition to financial assistance, the division of housing and food services will attempt to find housing for mobile home park tenants in several of the University’s apartment complexes. Tenants wishing to move from the mobile home park into University-owned facilities will be given priority for one-, two-, or three-bedroom apartments, depending upon their needs and family size.
For additional information, contact Dr. Floyd Hoelting, director of housing and food services, (512) 471-3136.
