American Dream

Ray of hope after court ruling

By Larry Carson
Sun Staff
Originally published June 29, 2005

Quotes:

A ray of legal hope is lifting spirits among the small band of holdouts living in the closed Ev-Mar Mobile Home Park in Savage after a Howard County District Court ruling this week that pulled them back from the precipice of eviction.

Judge Neil Edward Axel ruled that the remaining nine families have a right to a Circuit Court jury trial, frustrating for the second time in two months attempts by lawyers for the absentee owners -- heirs of the late Henry and Evelyn Meyn -- to regain possession of the 6.8-acre plot on Gorman Road.

Worse, from the landowners' view, the decision raises the possibility that the working-class residents could get a chance to argue before fellow citizens that they are being unjustly forced from their homes and left destitute by absentee owners anticipating a reported $3.6 million land sale.

Ev-Mar is facing a fate increasingly common for mobile home parks along redeveloping U.S. 1 as land values climb steeply. It is the third old trailer park to close in Howard County, and the 241-lot Aladdin Village in Jessup is expected to be next, county officials have said. The closings eliminate a prime source of moderate-income housing at a time when more families are being priced out of the market.