Over 100 people at North Fork Mobile Home Park have been evicted to clear the way for a shopping center. Lexington-based developer Patrick Madden will receive millions of dollars from local governments for the project. The shopping center will pay workers poverty wages, and, like other shopping centers in Morehead, is likely to sit half-empty. Sign to pledge to boycott Madden’s shopping center. #BoycottPatrickMadden

According to a project analysis paid for by Madden, restaurant jobs at the shopping center will pay an average of $7.40/ hour and retail jobs will pay an average of $10.43/ hour.* Wages this low will leave Morehead workers struggling to get by. Morehead does not need another shopping center that pays workers low wages.

What Morehead does need is more affordable housing. By throwing millions of dollars at Patrick Madden to build his poverty-wage shopping center, Morehead eliminated over 75 units of affordable housing. The residents of North Fork Mobile Home Park lost their safe, stable, affordable housing where many had lived for years. All at once, dozens of Morehead residents had to scramble to move. This drove up the competition for affordable housing, making it hard for anyone to find somewhere nice in Morehead to live.

The displaced residents of North Fork are demanding compensation for their losses, more time to move, and policies that will prevent future displacement. So far, neither local government, Patrick Madden, nor North Fork’s landlord, Joanne Fraley, has been willing to negotiate with residents.

The shopping center Patrick Madden plans to build and the local government is helping pay for will hurt Morehead. It already has. By adding more stores to sit empty and keep workers in poverty, Madden’s development takes Morehead down the wrong path. Pledge to boycott. #BoycottPatrickMadden

*Source: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2021/04/16/morehead-mobile-home-residents-evicted-to-make-way-for-development/7229923002/. These averages assume that workers work 40 hours/ week, 52 weeks/ year. Restaurant and retail workers rarely get that many hours, meaning that hourly wages will likely be even lower.