Bella Vista (12 images)

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In a time of financial boom, land in the Las Vegas Valley was a rich comodity. Park Bella Vista was one of 15 trailer parks that was vacated during those boom years. The land where Park Bella Vista sat in downtown Henderson was bought by housing developers and converted into 110 single family homes. When the land was purchased, park residents were given six months to leave. Many people had been living in the park for more then a decade. This is a portrait of the evicted residents.
  • Kyle Verley, 19, and girlfriend Taylor Astle, 16, relax in the front yard on a Sunday afternoon. Kyle has lived in Park Bella Vista with his family since he was four years old. "It was our place," Kyle's dad, Cal said. "To have to move is a tough thing."

  • David Cosper searches the shed in his front yard for a tool to fix a chair. Cosper and wife Dawn raised two children, now 16 and 13 years old, in Park Bella Vista.

  • Five-year-old Aliea Strain hugs one of her many neighborhood caretakers while playing in the afternoon outside in Park Bella Vista Tuesday, Jan. 31.

  • Until the 1980s, Park Bella Vista was known as Trailer Haven. Park owners renamed the trailer community hopeful the new name would help change the park's seedy reputation. "Trailer Haven was always the place that would take trailers no other park would take," said Marsha Dent, a park resident from 1986-1998.

  • Charles Hamilton, Park Bella Vista maintenance man and former resident, sits in the mobile home he purchased in a neighboring park with money earned from the sale of his Bella Vista double-wide. Rather than pay demolition fees, Hamilton and his son tore down the family's old double-wide themselves and put the money saved towards their new trailer.

  • In a house upturned because of the move, Dawn Cosper boxes up her family's belongings one month before Bella Vista is officially closed. Cosper's family will relocate to a trailer park a few miles away. "They didn't care. They honestly didn't care," Cosper said of the Henderson City Council, who voted to close the park without input from residents.

  • John Orecchio from Budget Mobile Home Services tears down an abandoned trailer at Park Bella Vista. The demolition was halted shortly thereafter because of asbestos concerns in the half vacated park. An environmental services agency was called in to examine several trailers before demolition began anew.

  • The Camacho family gets help from relatives loading aluminum roofing stripped from their add-on porch into a truck headed out of state. As Bella Vista vacated, thieves began stealing aluminum from park trailers at night, selling the scrap metal for about 50 cents per pound.

  • "I'm fighting strong for this place, it's all I got," said Jeannie Charleston, who has remained in the park past the March 28 deadline. Park owners received a court order on March 29 to evict Jeannie from the property.

  • Five-year-old Aurora Verley wanders through her grandfather's empty mobile home, looking for a place to go to the bathroom. It's moving day for the Verley family and water in their trailer has just been shut off.

  • Anita Strain, right, and daughters Melissa, 8, and Allison, 1, wait on the street with family friend Jeannie Charleston. They plan to eat a free meal at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, where Jeannie often takes the girls for dinner.

  • Jeannie Charleston, who has remained in the park past the March 28 deadline, dances to country music during a party she threw at the trailer park, where she is now offcially squatting. Park owners received a court order on March 29 to evict Jeannie from the property, though Jeannie did not leave the property until a week later. She was the last one to leave before the trailer park property was fenced off.

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© Leila Navidi Photography |CONTACT |Questions? Email me at leila.navidi@gmail.com
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