Trailer park residents will get twice as much to make way for new Jackson County jail
Mobile home park residents who are being displaced to make room for a new Jackson County jail will get fatter compensation packages than originally planned, the county legislature decided during a boisterous meeting Monday.
Each of the 100 households at Heart Village will get $10,000 instead of the $5,000 originally proposed, in addition to the cost of moving their trailer to another location, or fair compensation for their mobile home, if it cannot be moved.
The total cost to taxpayers is budgeted at $1.7 million instead of the $1.2 million aid package originally proposed, and it will be administered by the non-profit Community Services League of Independence. Community Services will also advise residents on their moves.
The county took possession of Heart Village recently and will not charge rent while residents look for other places to live. The former owner, Park Properties Inc. of Wichita, will continue to manage the park until everyone leaves.
But the county has already stepped in and mowed the area and paid off Park Properties’ delinquent water bill, which totaled $111,000 when Kansas City filed notice of the unpaid bill last October.
Residents will also live at the trailer park rent free until they move, the legislature decided at a meeting attended by a number of those residents, whose cause has been championed by the KC Tenants advocacy group.
Last month, the county announced its $7 million purchase of the 107-acre site along the Blue River at 7000 E. U.S. Highway 40, where it intends to built a $260 million replacement for the Jackson County Detention Center in Kansas City. A relocation package for tenants was written into the purchase agreement.
But residents thought the aid package was insufficient and circulated a petition demanding more than the $5,000 originally offered. County officials have said all along that they wanted fair treatment for the people being displaced, many of whom are low income and living in trailers that are no longer mobile.
Legislators voted to increase the payments Monday after residents in the audience interrupted the meeting repeatedly and chanted “We’re here now,” demanding to be heard even though no hearing for the compensation measure was on the agenda. The package was only supposed to be introduced for later discussion, but under pressure legislators decided to act Monday so Heart Village residents would not have to return for a later meeting.
This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 3:04 PM.
