(Tom) This week on Arizona Illustrated, our ongoing series, Mobile Homes, The Last Affordable Housing?

continues with The Eviction Game.

(Kimberly) So if I violate their rules and they kick me out of their property, I can't get back in here.

It's called trespassing.

(Tom) Learn about a beautiful flower that'll attract butterflies to your yard.

(Jack) If you're looking for a low growing, relatively low maintenance, and prolifically blooming wildflower, this is a fantastic choice.

(Tom) See how one local company is saving history by amassing a unique collection.

(Kevin) I don't know if saving all this matters.

I really don't.

To me it matters.

(Tom) And our poetry series continues with Monster into Martyr by Sylvia Chan.

(Sylvia) Sulfur, sun dried, amputations are our lineage.

God releases his grip on our necks.

(upbeat music) Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

Here in Southern Arizona, living in a mobile home once represented stability.

It was affordable without the burden of a traditional mortgage.

But for many people now, that sense of security has vanished.

In this next chapter of Mobile Homes, The Last Affordable Housing?

we look at the eviction game, where the rules are written by park management, the timelines can be unforgiving, and the cost of people losing their homes can derail their future.

♪ SOFT LOUNGE MUSIC ♪ WOMAN SINGING ♪ MUSIC FADES (Kimberly) This is the last affordable housing.

There is no place that's cheaper than this.

My name is Kimberly Lucas.

I live at Friendly Village Estates and I've been here since October of 2021.

[ TYPING ] I'm from Chicago, South Suburbs.

I lived in Sauk Village all my life and I taught at the local high school there.

My parents have been down here since '88 and I would come almost every year and visit when I had time off.

I came because my parents were getting elderly and so my mom needed some help when my dad got sick.

I always knew I'd come and help them, but I didn't think I'd live in their park.

[ CHUCKLES ] I was looking for a bigger home in here and I found this 1970 and it was completely untouched.

Well when I bought this it was $40,000 for just the blank shell.

Yeah and it needed all kinds of work and I went ahead and dumped another $40,000 in it.

(Yana) Across southern Arizona, mobile home communities have become spaces for intergenerational living and for many an accessible chance at home ownership.

But when residents have a dispute with their landlord, whether it be about utility bills or lot rent prices, they're often left to find solutions on their own.

(Kimberly) If I do something on the property, I have to have their permission to do it first, unless it's replacing what's existing already.

But yet they don't pay for anything so it's all my cost but I'm restricted by their rules.

(Yana) When did you like kind of realize that dynamic?

Right, not till I got in here.

I got my first 15/30.

A 15/30 is a warning that if you don't follow our rules within 15 days, we will evict you in 30.

The process is super fast.

I think they pay a $73 fee or something, a $65 fee and ask to evict a person.

Within three days they're in court.

(Yana) Silver King, the owners of Friendly Village Estates, did not respond to a request for comment.

[ FORUM TALK ] After years of organizing, residents' complaints about the little recourse available in disputes with park owners have caught the attention of the state's top lawyer.

In the Tucson Town Hall in the spring of 2025, Attorney General Kris Mayes confronted stories of predatory landlords and life-destroying bills.

(Kris) These town halls are important that-that the AGs are having because I do think housing discrimination is a significant piece of the problem and I believe that many people have been made homeless by this.

- The landlords are throwing us out.

They're making things up and I'm not kidding.

- I was too frightened to be just me against them.

- The reason for that is the intimidation.

(Kimberly) So if I violate their rules and they kick me out of my--their property, I can't get back in here.

It's called trespassing.

Therefore, how do I get, how do I sell my house?

Because it's on their property, it's abandoned and they take ownership.

(Roseanne) I got evicted and it's over back utilities but they didn't have the meter readings or anything and I ended up getting evicted off of that because I couldn't pay because I got, I'm on SSI.

I think this is an all hands-on deck problem and it clearly is something that is an existential threat and problem for Pima County.

(Yana) Challenging utility bills during an eviction proceeding is difficult and the burden of proof often falls on residents.

In addition, the speed of the eviction process where a hearing can be set just days after a landlord files a complaint can make it difficult to find legal representation.

That's what happened to Roseanne Aldama.

(Roseanne) No, this is not is not right.

There is no justice for the poor, only for the rich.

They can afford a lawyer.

We can't afford a lawyer.

We have nobody to back us up.

I already tried everything.

So now from me having a home to living on a driveway, that's where I live now.

[ PLANE HUMMING ] (Yana) Aldama lived in Desert Shores Mobile Home Park for seven years.

She was in a rent to own program, just 10 months away from owning her home outright when the eviction notice came.

(Roseanne) Growing up, we did a lot of moving, a lot of evictions because when they wanted to raise your rent and everything, you couldn't afford it well, then it was time to-to vacate.

[ CARS WOOSHING ] (Roseanne) I moved in Desert Shores in 2017.

Each time we'd get a new manager, the rent would go up and then I'd seen the bill of $730.

You know, gas kept on going higher or lower and at one point my light went up to, I think, $400.

So by the time they racked up so much that when I got out of there, I owed them over $6,000.

(Yana) In a statement, Skyline Real Estate disputed Aldama's details about her gas charges and said she was evicted for non-payment of rent.

In August 2024, the Attorney General ordered Skyline to credit money back to residents in another park owned by the company, saying they were overcharged for water.

(Roseanne) At the end of October, I went into eviction court, but they wouldn't get my payment.

And the judge said, "Well, you should have saved them."

I go, "You know what?

At the end, I had to use the money to go find somewhere else to-to live."

(Yana) Roseanne Aldama lost her home.

She started over in a shed on borrowed land, where she works on a tenant resource guide and advocates for manufactured home residents, all while stringing together access to basic utilities like water and power.

(Roseanne) This is the shed, and like I said, I used the money to find this place.

(Yana) And do you own this?

(Roseanne) No, I don't.

This one right here, I put down $150 and it's $191 a month, and $206 for the toilet, which is going to be going up, because if you see all the flies, because it's a port-a-potty, so I got to wait for them to service it.

[ TRUCK BEEPING ] [ PUMP WHIRRING ] It is safer than being out in the street, and by the time I'm done, I hardly have anything left in my check.

(Yana) So this right now does not have power or running water?

(Roseanne) It has nothing.

It's just somewhere to stay in, so I don't stay outside.

(Yana) Aldama's experience while stark, is not unusual.

My mom always says, "Justice is for the rich, not for the poor.

So you got to make things work, because there's no justice for you."

♪ OMINOUS XYLOPHONE Residents like Kimberly Lucas and Roseanne Aldama tell us that eviction isn't just a legal process.

They say that it's a way of life that keeps families trapped in debt and instability.

As Arizona's housing crisis deepens, mobile home residents say they face mounting pressure for management tactics that test how far the law can be bent.

Next time in part three, we look at the growing concern of utility price gouging.

Another tactic, they say, is being used in these parks to force residents out.

The Sonoran Desert is home to thousands of plants and many more can be grown here from other regions and habitats.

Next, if you're looking for a native option, we're going to show you a bountiful bloomer that attracts butterflies and other pollinators.

♪ LIGHT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC (Jack) I am sitting amongst a plant called Gregg's Mist, Conoclinium gragii.

It's a member of the sunflower family, but it doesn't resemble the typical sunflower you might be used to.

This plant is found in extreme southeastern Arizona into New Mexico and Texas, and it is one of the absolute best landscaping plants for attracting butterflies to your yard.

The most common butterfly that you will see associated with the mist flower is the queen butterfly.

But what's kind of interesting is that 90 plus percent of the queens that you see on this plant will actually be males.

And what they are doing is, aside from getting nectar, they're taking in a chemical called intermedine, and this chemical serves as a sexual attractant as they're flying around looking for a mate.

What's even more interesting is when they mate with the female butterfly, they pass this alkaloid to the female in what's called a nuptial gift, and when she goes to lay her eggs, some of this alkaloid will still be in those eggs, and it makes them unpalatable to potential predators.

So this plant, the Gregg's Mist flower, is really critical in the life cycle of one of our most common and prolific butterflies, the queen.

Another great aspect of this plant is that it spreads really easily, both by root runners that help it form patches around your yard, and by these abundant seeds that will carry off on the wind and establish this plant in other areas.

This is a medium water use plant.

I like to use it in the bottom of basins or in areas where I know I'll have irrigation or gray water going.

It keeps it greener throughout the year, keeps it blooming for a longer period of time.

In terms of the height, it doesn't get much more than about two to three feet, but because it'll spread by the root system, you might have a patch anywhere between about three to five feet wide.

This plant has a relatively long bloom season.

You'll first start seeing blooms in the late spring.

They often take a break during the hot, dry part of early summer, and then they'll pick back up once the monsoon rains come and bloom well into the fall and even into the early winter.

This plant can die back if we get a hard frost, but if it's planted in a warm location, like up against a wall or if we have a warmer winter, it can be with you all year round.

If you do get some dieback on this plant, don't worry.

You can simply take your pruners, cut it back almost to the ground, and it will regrow as it warms up right from the root system.

So even if this plant dies back heavily, it's not gone.

It'll just come back from that perennial root system.

If you're looking for a low-growing, relatively low-maintenance, and prolifically blooming wildflower, this is a fantastic choice.

And if you want to attract butterflies to your yard, this is an absolute must-have.

♪ LIGHT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC [ BIRDS CHIRPING ] On Wednesday, November 19th, we'll be hosting Thriving in the Desert, beneficial plants for you, your community, and nature.

This in-person event will be held from 6 30 to 8 30 p.m.

at the Environment and Natural Resources 2 Building, room N 120 on the University of Arizona campus.

For more information, go to azpm.org/plants and we hope to see you there.

Tucson is known for gems and minerals, but it's also home to a unique piece of jewelry history.

Potter USA has saved and preserved one of the world's largest collections of historic jewelry hubs, tools that one shape designs for jewelers all around the world.

[ MACHINERY SOUNDS ] (Kevin) We create new dies that are used in the jewelry manufacturing business.

We collect antique dies from the beginning of the industrial revolution to contemporary.

It's like a chain reaching back into history.

So each generation is trained the next.

I started out as a goldsmith when I was 17 years old.

I was fascinated with the skill involved in antique jewelry.

And when I started learning about how it was made, I just fell in love with the die striking process.

This isn't something that you can learn at school because in a classroom, you may go to school a few hours a day and you'll take different classes and different subjects.

Doing an apprenticeship, you're gonna do the exact same thing all day, every day for years, and you'll get good at it.

You can literally trace all the way back to who made it.

And once the company's closed, you break that chain.

And what I've done is go and pick up those chains and try to keep reconnecting them so that we keep building on what once was so that it just doesn't die.

And that's kind of the mission of our company.

And we've been doing that for over 25 years.

We have accumulated 70 different companies, probably one of the largest collections.

It is the actual hand work of thousands of the finest craftsmen in the world.

You could never recreate this.

We also have a lot of their toolboxes.

My son, being that he's young, a lot of the old hand engravers and people who work in these factories, they wanna give their tools to somebody who will use them.

And so he saves their toolbox and just like they had it.

He's always come to work with me and he would bring his friends too.

And so we jokingly called it the child labor program.

We have employees that we've known since they were like 11 years old and they're in their 20s now.

(Kevin) I'm confident that Vincent is doing it out of love for the trade.

(Vincent) It is a labor of love and we're able to provide employment for 25 people, including health insurance.

And I don't know, even if something happens and this whole place falls apart tomorrow, we were able to provide a good living for people and I think that counts for a lot.

(Kevin) I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined that they would invent artificial intelligence that would design a piece of jewelry and then the artificial intelligence would write all the code to program the machine to make the piece of jewelry and then a robot would set the stones in the piece of jewelry and where humans don't touch it.

Well, within six years of the time I saw that machine, it had completely eradicated my job.

Basically, I decided instead of going forward in life, I would go back and I would go way back in history so that it was already obsolete and I would embrace the obsolescence.

You're never gonna stop the technology, but what I would like to do is at least preserve what we have and they can see a difference between something that was generated by a computer versus something that was generated by human hands.

And the difference is absolutely striking.

So this hub is hand-carved, direct into the steel, and is then heat treated.

From there, this hub is driven into the die with a big hammer.

It is struck to create the reverse side.

I have a little piece of silver here.

We have our die locked in here and we have our force locked in here.

So we have the positive and the negative side.

They're going to collide and create the stamping.

So we set this here.

Turn the press on.

And now I'm going to engage the clutch.

That's our first stamping.

(Kevin) There wasn't like a conscious decision to start the company.

Because my wife likes to scrapbook and I'd see her and her friends using stencils and stamps.

And I thought, well, what if I could bring this stuff to the average person?

I had a $10,000 limit on my credit card.

In my wildest fantasy, we would at least pay back the credit card.

Boy, are they, they start selling really well.

I mean, there's starting to be crowds of people.

And needless to say, I was able to pay back the credit card.

And that is how we started the company.

(Danielle) Yeah, I have unending faith in Kevin.

And I don't know why, he's just a believable person.

And he always says, I'm just crazy enough to believe my own ideas, you know?

And I go with it, because I don't know any better.

(Kevin) The people who were buying these tools were not at all who I thought would buy the tools.

I thought I would be able to reintroduce my tools to jewelers and professional goldsmiths.

I thought that they would see the light and really go, we don't need the computer, we need to do it the old way.

But what it was, was hobbyists.

It occurred to me that there's a whole lot more hobbyists out in the world than there are professional jewelers.

A lot of my customers sell their designs on Etsy and they sell them on eBay and they sell them at craft shows.

I think it's fantastic for people to have an outlet for their crafts.

I don't know if saving all this matters.

I really don't.

To me it matters.

And to our thousands of customers it matters.

I've agonized over it about what is the point of it.

We've gone way past the absurd with the amount we have.

I guess that's why I'm here, trying to explain to people what's special about this.

You know, you look at music, it's just auto-tuned, it's not played live very often.

There's something about a live performance.

It's got a whole sense of feeling.

And I always was annoyed whenever I'd go to a concert and I'd hear people go, "it doesn't sound like the record."

And I'm like, well, "I'm thrilled it doesn't sound like the record."

I can listen to the record at home.

I wanna hear the person, the voice.

And this is the voice.

(Vincent) ♪ I got a job in a factory, feeding the beast ♪ ♪ that don't like me.

♪ It don't give a damn about how I feel ♪ ♪ as long as I feed it a ration of steel.

♪ ♪ Pity the man that knows the grief ♪ ♪ that comes within the ♪ bite of that monster's teeth.

♪ ♪ If it comes down with a big loud shout, ♪ ♪ the boss will buy new ♪ fingers as he throws you out.

♪ With the holidays approaching and growing uncertainty over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs, the nearly 900,000 Arizonans who depend on SNAP for their basic necessities are worrying more and more about where their next meal may come from.

If you or someone you know is concerned, go to azpm.org/SNAP We've compiled a list of resources, including food banks closest to your home, local food shares, and all of our ongoing coverage to keep you up to date on this important issue.

Next we bring you something a little bit different for our show.

We have teamed up with the University of Arizona Poetry Center to bring you poems written by local poets and then visualized by our team of producers.

Here Sylvia Chan reads "Monster Into Martyr" ♪ DRAMATIC MUSIC "Monster Into Martyr" Danger can't be a gimmick.

There are twenty-nine skull bones, grinning at the faunal remains at the bottom of Alameda Creek.

Endangered Species indeed.

Evan Isaiah, how are the women you've dismembered and tucked into hefty bags, the ones our caseworkers unzipped for us?

You avoided the other fosters' silent malice, with ash as the chokehold, [ FIRE CRACKLING ] the unkempt flicker of evil.

A mooring: the sun's search for the sickbed spite blurring the backs of your eyes.

Like the prisoner you'd commit, to be born until your archeological sites lose their number, invoking itself a state institution.

Our blue and white house at the bottom of the hills, where you scaled the rope, conspiring and weaving the night our sister was murdered, an ars poetica.

I stiffen like rigor mortis.

What is suicide but the resolve to say, mine?

What is inheritance but the right to be touched as if we wanted it?

What is desire but the denial into the glass slipper [ GLASS SHATTERS ] to shatter toes and heel?

I have tried hard enough.

Sulfured, sun-dried amputations are our lineage.

God releases his grip on our necks, as if we can be remembered in the oak tree.

[ BIRDS CHIRPING ] (Tom) Like what you're seeing on Arizona Illustrated?

Then connect with us on social media for even more Arizona Illustrated.

Meet our team.

Go behind the scenes of Arizona Illustrated location shoots.

See exclusive bonus content from our segments and find out the stories behind the stories.

Got an idea for the show?

A comment or question?

Let us know.

Like, follow and subscribe to Arizona Illustrated on Facebook, Instagram and X. Before we go, here's a sneak peek at a story we're working on.

(Curt) My mother was a painter, and my father was a truck driver.

And from an early age, I always got art materials for birthdays.

My first experiences were with clay, making dinosaurs.

Almost every culture has had clay as a way of expressing themselves.

So in our modern society, we are dependent on so many electronics, primitive cultures made pottery.

There was just something, I don't know, primal about clay, and I just felt very comfortable with clay.

I had always wanted to hike, so I came out and hiked the Grand Canyon, and then built a pottery wheel, and started off thinking I was gonna be a functional potter.

But I didn't last long as a functional potter.

Thank you for joining us here on Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara, we'll see you again next week.