They’re struggling to find homes. Jackson County is evicting them from their trailers

Zoila Guzman, 42, has had two strokes that left her dependent on a wheelchair. She’s legally blind and has no income. Searching for a new place on her own is impossible. But that’s the position she’s been in for months since Jackson County ordered her and other residents of Heart Village to make way for a new jail.

The county promised Heart Village residents help to relocate them from the Kansas City mobile home park.

But that hasn’t happened for everyone since the families were informed nearly a year ago they would have to move. The county’s primary motivation has been to get all residents off the 107-acre property to make room for a new $260 million jail to be built there starting in June.

The county wanted everyone gone by the end of March and put $2.5 million toward that goal. “More than 90% of the residents were able to find a forever home,” said Caleb Clifford, county chief of staff.

But a dozen or so residents are still struggling to find new homes.

A handful received eviction notices earlier this month, because “we were out of options,” Clifford said. “At some point we have to just say this is where the new jail is going and this property has to be vacated. We are trying to be as thoughtful in this process as possible.”

Maybe not as thoughtful as they should be.

From the beginning, residents have had to fight to make the county stop collecting rent while people searched for homes. The county’s plan promised each family $10,000 in relocation funds. The needs varied. In addition to families, Heart Village included disabled and elderly people.

Guzman, one of the disabled residents, says Community Services League, the nonprofit the county paid $170,000 to manage the moves, has been no help.

She’s still living in the trailer she has owned for 17 years. Her church helps her buy groceries. A friend drives her around looking for a place to move to. And “every place I try to go tells me no,” she said.

Last Monday, Guzman’s electricity was disconnected. County officials told us they had nothing to do with it. Her electricity went off because a “transformer was popped open and it looked like someone tried to steal it,” Clifford said.

He said that when Guzman said that the utility company told her it received a list of disconnects from the county with her name on it, she got it wrong. The county actually gave Evergy names of residents whose utilities were to remain on.

They can’t both be right. So we called Evergy and received this response: “Jackson County is the customer. We disconnected per their request and we reconnected per their request,” said Justin Daily, spokesman for the utility company.

Guzman’s electricity was reconnected after KC Tenants, a housing advocacy group, complained on her behalf to the county.

What is true though, is that after nearly a year, Guzman still has not gotten the help she was promised by the county to find a new home. She says they’ve given her a few more days.

If county officials really did care, they would direct the Community Services League to focus on finding a home for Guzman. Instead, said KC Tenants founder Tara Raghuveer, “Jackson County officials have done their best to dismiss and dispose of everyone who lived at Heart Village mobile homes.” Their latest steps “to evict and intimidate” the remaining residents is “cruel,” she said.

Electric scooter ruined when promised ramp not built

Meanwhile, some of those who moved out months ago are not happy with how the county has treated them during this process. And for good reason.

Urban Schaefer, a disabled veteran, was relocated to Excelsior Springs in January. The county moved him into a used trailer that still doesn’t have a ramp for the electric scooter he uses to get around. The county promised him a ramp, but it hasn’t been in any rush to install one.

In the meantime, his scooter sat outdoors. “It’s ruined from the rain and doesn’t work,” he said. Schaefer worried that in an emergency he couldn’t get out of the trailer fast because his deck is 6 feet from the ground.

“These people just don’t care,” said Mary Ellen Peacock, a former Heart Village resident.

Schaefer got an eviction notice even though he left three months ago. His two adult sons live in another trailer on the property. They haven’t moved because they said the county promised them $20,000 to leave by the end of February but only gave them $14,000, which they accepted at the time. They got eviction notices too.

Schaefer’s name isn’t on their trailer lease, but he was paying the land fee for the space it sits on. Now he’s worried about having an eviction against his credit record.

No county official should be content until every resident is settled into another home as good or better than the one they were forced to leave. Those still trying to leave should not have to live for even one day in an unsafe environment where streetlights don’t come on and security has stopped patrolling.

And eviction doesn’t help. It only adds another onerous burden on people struggling to find affordable housing with limited resources.