Property taxes present their own catch-22.
Even if officials managed to secure titles and legally remove the properties, it would cost up to $6,500 for each trailer - a burden that would fall to the town. Naturita has struggled since the mines closed. To save the town the legal headache of dealing with property rights, Naturita passed a resolution that would fine abandoned-trailer-owners $50 a day, but the town hasn’t been able to hire an ordinance officer to enforce it.įinancing the removals is another barrier. Town officials have tried to reach owners, but “we are just kind of playing a waiting game,” said Mike Mortensen, a town councilman. Many of these mobile homes were abandoned so long ago that their ownership details are murky, and it is very difficult, legally, to dispose of private property without the owner’s consent. In Naturita, the first hurdle - figuring out who owns the property - is difficult to clear. County commissioners in New Mexico, for example, began talks last February to address the problem of uninhabited mobile homes attracting “children, pets and even packrats.” In Douglas County, Oregon, a study was conducted to test ways to handle the blight. “And then to be out of work, and not being able to pay their bills - one by one, they left.”Ībandoned properties are a common issue across the West, exacerbated by the extraction economy’s periodic busts. “It was a lifetime experience for most of them,” he said about the local workers. Riley, who has lived here 53 years, has witnessed many such booms and busts. This mobile home is one of several abandoned after the nearby uranium mines closed in the early 1980s, spurring a mass exodus. A few drops of stale beer trickle down his arm. John Riley, the mayor of Naturita, stands by the door and picks up an empty Corona bottle.
I navigate around piles of old clothing and cassette tapes, Cheerios and uncooked pasta crunching underfoot. It is easy to imagine that someone once hung it there to give the room a cozy touch. This story is a part of the ongoing Back 40 series, where HCN reporters look at national trends and their impacts close to home.Ī dead potted plant dangles from the ceiling of a derelict trailer in Naturita, a former uranium-mining town in western Colorado, its spindly tendrils reaching toward a large broken window. Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate Now
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