“Morale has completely collapsed”

Residents of a mobile-home community at Sævarhöfði have been told that electricity and water will be shut off on November 1. Facilities containing a dishwasher and dryer will also close.

Geirdís Hanna Kristjánsdóttir, a resident and treasurer of the Association of Mobile-Home Residents, said no one had discussed another option with the community or offered help finding somewhere to stay during the winter.

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There has been no discussion with us about offering another solution or anything like that.

“There has been no discussion with us about offering another solution or anything like that,” Geirdís said. Residents have tried to open talks with Reykjavík City since their time in Laugardalur, she said, but have received neither answers nor information.

Twelve mobile homes are currently at Sævarhöfði. Residents remain deeply dissatisfied with the city’s decision to terminate an agreement for a mobile-home site in Gufunes. Geirdís said they had made substantial preparations, including obtaining quotes for earthworks and assessing the cost of bringing water and electricity to the site boundary.

“The city was never supposed to cover the cost of establishing the site, and that was stated very clearly in the agreement we signed,” she said. City lawyers later described the agreement as unclear, a position that Geirdís questioned.

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The city was never supposed to cover the cost of establishing the site, and that was stated very clearly in the agreement we signed.

“Since we were moved here, morale has completely collapsed,” she said. Contact between residents has weakened compared with their earlier community in Laugardalur, while uncertainty over their housing has continued. Residents are anxious, she said, because they have received no dialogue or answers.

Geirdís said residents were not optimistic about receiving answers before November 1. Some have begun looking elsewhere, but neighboring municipalities have stopped offering winter rentals, while Laugardalur limits winter stays to 10 days at a time.

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Since we were moved here, morale has completely collapsed.