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Woman Kicked Out Of Trailer For Helping Homeless Friend

Posted: 5:19 pm EDT July 2, 2009Updated: 6:05 pm EDT July 2, 2009

It's been two and a half years since deadly tornadoes swept through Central Florida and one DeLand woman is being kicked out of her FEMA trailer.

However, it's not because she stayed too long, it's because she helped a homeless woman. The tornado victim says she has no where else to go.

The trailer has been her home for since February 2007, because her original trailer was destroyed.

Linda Bell was promised help in the form of a new home by two different agencies, but she could be on the street Friday.

Bell is packing to move, but says she doesn't know where to go. She took in a friend, a woman who is homeless and pregnant.

That's against FEMA rules and it's taking the trailer back.

"I know that was breaking the rules, but I'm the kind of lady, I will help you. Do you need my shirt? That's the kind of lady I am," said Bell.

What is even more confusing to Bell is why she doesn't have her own home by now, one promised by FEMA and VIND, a local disaster assistance agency.

Documents from December said a mobile home was on the way, but Volusia County won't allow that.

"The problem for us is we can't put a mobile home in this neighborhood because the zoning doesn't allow it," said Dave Byron, Volusia County.

The county cannot make an exception and VIND said it is not a fight that can be won.

However, Bell lived in a mobile home in that same area since the 60s; well before the 1984 zoning rule was passed.

"I would get goose bumps. I'm getting a trailer, I'm getting a trailer! Finally! And the county's going to do my septic system and my well. Now all of a sudden, nothing," she said.

A manufactured, modular home would be allowed, but that's not what FEMA and VIND were offering.

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