Nearly three dozen residents of Hillside Mobile Home Park brought their concerns to the Troy City Council on Monday, seeking relief from being forced from their homes to make way for a new retail development.

“We are being cast aside like we don’t matter,” Nicole Tameka Wallace told council members during Tuesday’s meeting. “The City of Troy, The CEO of Publix and Tim Coleman are all doing better because of this … but we aren’t.”

Wallace was one of two residents of the park who spoke during the meeting. They were joined by Sam Brooke, the deputy legal director for economic justice with the Southern Poverty Law Center, who had sent a letter to the mayor and council members on Tuesday urging them to provide more time and assistance for residents being forced to move out of the park by June 30.

“We believe someone needs to step up and help these residents,” Brooke said prior to the meeting.

The mobile home park, located on U.S. 231, is located on property flagged for major retail development, including a new Publix grocery store and one of two new connector roads. The projects, which will include a $10 million private investment in the retail development and an estimated $8 million city investment in the new roads along with $1 million in tax incentives, were announced April 6.

The property owners, Hillside Park LLC, have a contract to sell the property to the developer, Harbert Realty Services Inc. Tim Coleman, one of the owners of Hillside Park LLC, said tenants were officially notified of plans to close the park via a letter on April 15.

“We gave them 75 days notice, even though we were only required to give them 30 days notice, and we have offered financial incentives to the folks who were in good standing with us,” Coleman said Monday. “And we’ve told them if they have concerns we can work with them on an individual basis.”

More than 30 adults and children staged a protest outside city hall prior to the meeting. At the protest, Wallace said residents had tried to talk with Coleman, the landlord at Hillside Mobile Home Park, but had been unable to do so. “We were threatened with the police,” she said.

During the meeting, she told council members “we have been lied to and misled. For years Tim Coleman knew he was going to sell where we live to Publix … how would you feel if you had been lied to for months?”

Now, she said, residents are being offered $300 in moving assistance, if they continue to pay their rent, or up to $1,200 if they own their mobile homes and move by certain deadlines. But those amounts are not enough for low-income residents, who will face moving costs that include new security and utility deposits as well as costs for moving furniture and household items. “It’s unfair and unjust,” she said. “We know our renters need farm more than $300. Our renters need at least $2,500 and our homeowners need at least $5,000,” Wallace said. “We’ve asked Mr. Coleman for the help he promised on the news but he’s not listened to us. Now we’re here asking you to listen to us. Will you give us a hand or will you turn your head and let us sleep on the street?”

Johnny Witherington, Troy City Council president, told Wallace and the residents “we hear you and we will take this under advisement. We will see what can be done.”

Troy Mayor Jason Reeves also asked Brooke to contact Coleman directly. “I would encourage you to make a call on their behalf and let me know how that conversation goes,” Reeves said.

Brooke said after the meeting he was encouraged that the council members were “very receptive” to the residents’ concerns. “The mayor asked that w e reach out directly to Mr. Coleman and I look forward to doing that,” Brooke said. “We’ll call Mr. Coleman and see if there is an agreement that would be acceptable to the residents.”