‘Marshall, please help us’: Residents voice fears at mobile home park closure hearing

MARSHALL, MINN. – Residents of the Broadmoor Valley mobile home park voiced fear, frustration and pleas for help at a city-convened public hearing on the park’s impending closure.

The hearing, a required step under Minnesota law, saw the Marshall City Council appoint a neutral third party to navigate the complex process of closing the park, which has been embroiled in litigation in recent years.

“Marshall, please help us,” park resident Anais Rodriguez said at the hearing on Wednesday night. “We are part of Marshall, we are residents from Marshall, and I want to stay here to continue growing my kids and see them graduate from here as well.”

Broadmoor Valley, which has about 75 households, will close in March 2026, according to a letter to residents from the park’s owners, Schierholz and Associates. The letter said that the costs of maintaining the park and a lack of public investment in its facilities triggered the decision.

Residents told the council members about their concerns that the impending closure would displace them and that they would not be able to afford similar housing in the area.

“I don’t want to move out because we don’t have nowhere to go and live,” said park resident Camillia Rineer, 35.

Others in the crowd of about 65 people did not live at the park but read statements they said came from residents fearful of retribution for speaking out publicly.

Park owner Paul Schierholz, who attended the hearing, shook his head during some of the testimony, which he called a “waste of time.”

Some residents at the park have complained for years about conditions at Broadmoor Valley, and many of them during Wednesday’s hearing directed their ire at Schierholz, a Colorado Springs-based developer.

“It was just more bashing. Same thing I’ve heard for six years,” Schierholz said after the hearing.

Schierholz said many of the complaints against him on Wednesday had already been brought up in a lawsuit he had recently won. His company was sued by the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office in a civil lawsuit launched in 2021. But a jury in February sided in favor of Schierholz and Associates on almost all claims.

He is now involved in another legal battle, as the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) in February filed a lawsuit against his company alleging he had violated a 2022 grant agreement. Schierholz has described these claims as “bogus allegations.” His company in a legal filing asserts that MHFA acted in bad faith and that the grant agreement is unenforceable.

Schierholz did not speak on Wednesday night, even though he said in a recent letter to residents that he would give a presentation.

Instead, two employees stood up to support Schierholz at the hearing. They described Schierholz as someone who is “not good with words” and can come off as insulting, but said he needed support from residents.

“You don’t have to like him, you don’t have to agree with everything he says or does. … It’s nothing like that,” said park employee Hilary Giebner. “He just wants support.”

As part of the hearing, the City Council voted to appoint Angela Larson, family services director at the United Community Action Partnership, as third-party arbiter during the closure process.

After the hearing ended, resident Jesus Hernandez said he hopes the community’s concerns would be taken seriously, saying classism affects how people view mobile home residents’ problems.

“When people know that you live in a mobile home park, they stigmatize you,” Hernandez said. “A lot of people thought that we weren’t worth listening to. … We’re humans, we’re people. We have rights.”