Gerry Nye is fighting to save his home.

Nye and 32 of his neighbors live on the grounds of Parkside Manor, a personal-care facility formerly owned by VistaCare Group of Kew Gardens Hills, N.Y.

The company went bankrupt last year, and now a court-appointed trustee wants to sell the land and the homes on it, while blaming East Cocalico Township officials for failing to make it possible for the homeowners to buy their land.

"This stinks," Nye said Wednesday prior to a township supervisors meeting. "We seniors are caught in the middle between the township and the trustee for the property."

Parkside Manor is made up of 33 mobile or modular homes and a four-story assisted-living building on 12 acres near Reamstown.

In March 2007, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, determining there was an "immediate risk" to the residents, closed the assisted-living building for numerous and repeated health and safety violations. The 57 people living in the building moved to other personal-care facilities licensed by state officials.

The closing did not affect the private homes, although VistaCare owned the land on which they sat.

Shortly after the closing, VistaCare owner Anita Lee filed for bankruptcy. A federal court assigned Charles Schwab of William G. Schwab & Associates of Leighton as trustee, with instructions to liquidate VistaCare's assets.

Schwab, who was not at Wednesday's meeting, says because the homes are permanently attached to foundations, they cease to be mobile homes and therefore are the property of VistaCare.

Schwab said he has located buyers who wish to purchase the assisted-living building but who do not want to buy the mobile homes and vice versa.

According to a letter from Schwab, he tried to convince township supervisors to allow the homeowners to purchase the tracts they live on, but the township "has ignored my repeated requests."

The sticking point is a deed restriction in the original subdivision plan that says the lots may "not be transferred to the parties having residences constructed upon the said lots." The title, the covenant reads, "will remain with the developer."

"I would note that I am open to selling the lots back to you, but for the township's reluctance to remove this one restriction," Schwab wrote.

Schwab has quoted a price of about $35,000 per lot.

At Tuesday's meeting, supervisor chairman Douglas Mackley told more than 40 residents he would nullify the deed restriction "tonight if I thought it would solve your problems."

The trouble is, Mackley said, eliminating the restrictions does not guarantee that the people will be able to stay in their homes. Schwab, he said, could raise the lot price too high for the residents to afford.

As for Schwab's idea of dividing the 8-acre site into 33 separate lots, he said there is a possibility that some homes straddle two lots.

While Schwab's letter laid the blame for the mess on the township's doorstep, the supervisors agreed that Schwab was "trying to make us the bad guy," as Mackley put it. The board questioned his efforts in trying to find viable buyers.

"I don't think he did his due diligence so far as advertising the place," Mackley said.

Schwab, in his letter, voiced regret at having to take legal action against the homeowners — again blaming the township — but stated that by mid-June he will be "forced" to file actions to "determine that VistaCare owns the house you live in and as trustee I can sell it along with the land."

Some residents say their homes are not permanently attached but tied down just like modular houses in mobile-home parks. Therefore, they say, VistaCare has no claim on them.

Mackley advised that the homeowners pool their funds and hire an attorney familiar with bankruptcy court and real estate.

"I wouldn't wait," he said. "The end of June isn't far away."

Ideally, Mackley said, the lot of the personal-care facility should be split off from the mobile-home park, and each sold separately. The landowners would then form a two-party homeowners association to take care of the on-site roads and public water and sewer. The owner of the mobile-home park would then charge the residents land rent, as is currently done.

The threat of losing their homes has taken a toll on some. Crystal Gockley said her parents can't afford to buy their lot.

"This is freaking these people out," she said.

Charlotte Gentry, who moved into her home in March, said she knew about the bankruptcy when she bought her house.

"But they had kept everything the same, so we paid our rent and thought everything was OK," she said.

Most of the residents range in age from mid-50s into their 90s.

E-mail: lalexander@lnpnews.com