HIALEAH, Fla. (CNN Newsource) – Liliana Acosta has owned her home in Hialeah, Florida for over 20 years. Her fence backs up to the Memorial Plan San Jose Funeral Home and she’s never had an issue with them — until a few days ago.
That’s when the funeral home became so overwhelmed with COVID-19 victims it brought in a refrigerated truck and parked it just inches from her back door.
“I’m not okay and we’re going to keep fighting because that needs to go away,” said Acosta.
“It’s what, two feet maybe? Less?” she said. “They told us that they have COVID bodies that were coming in and they were storing them in there because they’re at full capacity inside.”
On Sunday, Acosta and her neighbors held a protest about the truck, saying they now deal with a nasty smell, constant noise from a generator and they worry they’re potentially being exposed to the virus.
But Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez said the truck doesn’t pose a health risk, and the funeral home has complied with all city and health department rules.
“Right now, we’re seeing it, not only from coronavirus but people are dying from other things, and these are people’s parents, somebody’s children, somebody’s grandparents, so we have to respect those people and we have to work through this,” said Hernandez.
Memorial Plan San Jose Funeral Home said in a statement on Monday: “Out of an abundance of understanding and compassion for our neighbors, we have worked with the Mayor and other officials to shift the location of our special care facility away from our neighbors to the other side of our property.”
According to the funeral home, that refrigerated truck will be moved to another part of the property sometime in the next two days.