The Evictions Surprised Trailer Park Residents. The Protest Stunned Officials.
An uproar in the hills of eastern Kentucky has raised questions about what a city owes to those dislodged by its growth and how to govern in an age of social media and protest.
In early March, residents of roughly 65 mobile homes in Morehead, Ky., were told they had a month and a half to leave and take their homes with them.Credit.Luke Sharrett for The New York Times
May 20, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
MOREHEAD, Ky. Under a slate-colored sky, the holdouts gathered in what remained of the North Fork Mobile Home Park. Around them it looked as if a hurricane had blown through, leaving scattered cinder blocks, capsized sofas and porches affixed to thin air. The small circle among them single mothers, a factory worker, a retiree, two community organizers sat on kitchen chairs discussing their next move: recruiting for a boycott.
When you think of eviction, it’s usually an individual tragedy. Someone gets cast out for not paying rent.
But here in Eastern Kentucky, millionaire Lexington developer Patrick Madden conspired with local governments to evict an entire neighborhood of residents who have paid their rent for years.
A whole community is being evicted in the middle of the most deadly pandemic in more than a century.
With COVID-19 raging late last year, Rowan County Fiscal Court and the Morehead City Council colluded with Madden and sealed the fate of more than 100 residents in the North Fork Mobile Home Park off Interstate 64 in Morehead. These folks have worked hard, raised families and voted for officials who set in motion their displacement.