8 | BALANCING THE SCALES | April 14, 2021
Urgent action needed to demand justice for North Fork residents Justice 4 North Fork is a resident-led campaign where residents are organizing in response to mass evictions in a Rowan County mobile home park due to a development project. Thanks to Justice 4 North Fork for permission to print the following petition. Patrick Madden – a wealthy Lexington developer – conspired with local governments to evict an entire neighborhood of over 100 people. Last month, the residents of North Fork Mobile Home Park were told to be out by April 30th. They were only given 45 days to attempt to relocate their mobile homes – which is a massive and expensive undertaking that risks the destruction of the home entirely. Patrick Madden is eliminating a neighborhood to build a $32 million retail site across the street from Morehead’s Kroger Center which currently houses 15 stores. Our shameful local officials have even given Madden millions of dollars in future Rowan County taxes. This project was also rushed through with almost no public knowledge. But North Fork residents are pushing back! Justice 4 North Fork, a campaign led by residents of North Fork mobile home park and former residents who were displaced because of impending development, demands the following: 1. More time. • We should be granted until at least September 30 to vacate our lots at North Fork mobile home park. 2. Financial compensation and protection. • All current residents and former residents who vacated North Fork mobile home park because of the impending development should be compensated $10,000 for hardship, moving costs, and other losses incurred by displacement. This should be in the form of direct payments with no strings attached. • Residents unable to move their trailer due to age or condition – including such residents who have already vacated – should be compensated $15,000. This, too, should be in the form of direct payments with no strings attached.
• A ll outstanding rent and property taxes are to be forgiven or paid by a third party. • If a resident must abandon their home, they will be free of incurring any expenses for the demolition of said home, with such costs either waved or paid for by a third party. 3. Respect. • We have been misled, lied to, and mistreated throughout the process of the sale of the land we live on. As such, we demand a public apology from the former landlord (Fraley Commercial Properties, LLC), the new developer (Patrick Madden), and members of local government who facilitated the land’s transfer. • The new development on the land on which we currently reside should feature a mural commemorating the North Fork mobile home park community, with all decisions about mural design and location made with the input and informed consent of former residents of North Fork mobile home park. 4. Protection for our neighbors. • A portion of revenues generated by the “Development Area” –i.e., the land on which North Fork mobile home park sits – should be allocated to a fund dedicated to preventing the displacement of residents of Morehead.
Sign the petition TODAY at: www.bit.ly/Justice4NF Connect with them online: Twitter: @ForkJustice Facebook: @Justice4NorthFork Instagram: @JusticeForNorthFork
TAKE ACTION!
North Fork residents held a rally at a Morehead City Council meeting, have organized phone zaps, and plan to meet with the mayor soon. Their work has gained attention from the media. Linda Blackford spoke with one resident for a recent Lexington Herald-Leader article (www.bit.ly/Lex-Herald-Leader): assey and her husband, Cody, had finished paying M off the 1985 mobile home last October, and owned it outright. Only Morehead and Rowan County no longer allows any mobile homes built before 1995. So they couldn’t move it. And thanks to Morehead State University, most rent in Rowan County is too high for the Masseys to afford. Adrienne Bush, executive director of the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, was also quoted in the Herald-Leader article: “ The market is broken and it’s not the fault of poor people,” Bush said. “If we have this many people who struggle to pay rent in a pandemic, then it’s a systemic problem, we need to figure out how to increase the supply of housing and make sure it’s affordable.”
