Radio National Background Briefing • Piss-Stained Blankets

What sort of industry is this? This industry of putting people in garden sheds?

One could be forgiven for thinking Park Owners are doing the public a service: giving people a cheap home. Except these are hardly homes, or at least mine is definitely not (a home), and the cost to the people is immeasurable.

The folk I know who live here are what used to be called “the salt of the earth”. Wonderful people, decent and reliable.

And on the surface one could think they’re happy living here. However, underneath the surface, problems sit in wait for some and are actively eating at peoples’ lives for others.

I’ll write more on this later. Essentially, though, these places are de-humanising. They crush the human spirit, bit by daily bit, and oppress the happier emotions. I wonder, in fact, if they are designed on purpose to be de-humanising as a way of controlling a lot of people in the one place.

And so it is that this is a subset of the Real Estate industry that is very different from the quality and controlled real estate industry as commonly known. Park Owners take money from good honest folk and the park owners are the ones who should be investigated by both government and media rather than the occupants – the ugly image of these places (“trailer park trash”) derives from occupants: but few question why they get that way and if the parks themselves foster occupants’ downfall.

In this light I came across an instance just days ago where media did investigate. It’s a production by the Background Briefing crew at ABC Radio National, and I urge a reader to have a listen.

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/backgroundbriefing/these-grey-nomads-were-sold-housing-security-instead-they-could-/104407314

(Featured image. Bottom feeding mud slitherers: “Caecilians (pronounced seh-SILL-yens) are tropical amphibians that look like large worms or slick snakes. They have no arms or legs, and sometimes it’s hard to tell which end is the head and which is the tail!” With thanks to San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.)