Long Island Mobile Home Park Residents Rally to Help Elderly Neighbors Keep Home

Rose and Sal Allocco, both 82, were injured in a car accident in March and fell behind on rent

Residents in a Long Island mobile home park rallied together to help an elderly couple keep their home.

Rose and Sal Allocco, both 82, have been living in the Calverton trailer park for 42 years.

The two were injured in a Riverhead car accident in late March when their car hit a guardrail and overturned, according to Newsday, which first reported this story.

Neighbors told NBC 4 New York that Rose remains hospitalized and recently woke from a coma.  Sal – who suffers from dementia – was taken to a nursing home.

After the tragedy, the couple fell behind on rent and the company that owns the trailer park threatened to evict them. Neighbors decided to figure out a way to raise money for the two.

"This could be any of us," said neighbor George Bakke.

The neighbors created a GoFundMe page to help the couple make up two months of back rent, getting the couple up to date. 

By then, word of the kind act had gotten around. Sal Mangano, the owner of a funeral home in Riverhead, donated three months rent to the couple, and other anonymous donors contributed two more months' rent.

"I'm just overwhelmed with the kindness and generosity," said Mangano.

But the company that owns the trailer park said in a statement Monday that it never posted an eviction notice. 

"Evicting a helpless person in a coma? We don't want to see that happen," said spokesman Norm Sorensen.

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