The 6-acre parcel of land is enclosed on all sides by tall, white fencing. “No trespassing” signs are posted intermittently, and vehicles drive in and out on a dirt road through the only opening in the fence. Beyond the walls, huge, white tents stand in one row and long, white trailers in another.
The property, situated between Arizona Avenue and Uzona Avenue in Colorado City, Arizona, is reportedly being turned into a mass housing compound for members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by the local city government.
Wyler said Colorado City changed its bylaws earlier this year in order to convert the former industrial park into residential land.
Approximately 19 tents as big as hay barns have been erected, he said, and what he described as “FEMA trailers” have also been moved onto the property; presumably, he said, the trailers will be reserved for FLDS families who are in better standing within the hierarchy of the church than those who will be living in the tents. Lean-tos are also being constructed where the future residents of this tent city will shower, wash their clothes and eat.
The irony, Wyler said, is FLDS people are currently losing their homes simply because they refuse to cooperate with the UEP, which is a trust that was created by the FLDS church in the 1940s but has been reformed by Utah’s 3rd District Court to administer housing solutions and benefits for trust participants. In order to stay in their homes, residents of UEP-held properties must become current on their property taxes and either go through the process of acquiring deeds to their homes or pay a $100 monthly occupancy fee to the UEP. Instead of encouraging FLDS members to cooperate with the UEP, however, church and city leaders are going to great expense to create a communal camp for the evictees to live in.
The tragedy, Wyler said, is FLDS members believe their taxes have already been paid because they gave the money for the taxes to their church leaders.
“That’s what we’re hearing,” he said. “People are getting tax bills and they’re saying, ‘We paid those taxes. We paid them to our church.’”
But whatever church leaders did with the funds, they didn’t pay them to the government. Wyler said more and more FLDS members are leaving the religion and finding that out the hard way.
“When they get out, it’s just like a wake-up,” he said. “They just get blasted with this information, then they get mad because they’ve been lied to all these years.”
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FLDS ‘concentration camp’ goes up in Colorado City; UEP must evict or lose land | St George News
The property, situated between Arizona Avenue and Uzona Avenue in Colorado City, Arizona, is reportedly being turned into a mass housing compound for members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints by the local city government.
Wyler said Colorado City changed its bylaws earlier this year in order to convert the former industrial park into residential land.
Approximately 19 tents as big as hay barns have been erected, he said, and what he described as “FEMA trailers” have also been moved onto the property; presumably, he said, the trailers will be reserved for FLDS families who are in better standing within the hierarchy of the church than those who will be living in the tents. Lean-tos are also being constructed where the future residents of this tent city will shower, wash their clothes and eat.
The irony, Wyler said, is FLDS people are currently losing their homes simply because they refuse to cooperate with the UEP, which is a trust that was created by the FLDS church in the 1940s but has been reformed by Utah’s 3rd District Court to administer housing solutions and benefits for trust participants. In order to stay in their homes, residents of UEP-held properties must become current on their property taxes and either go through the process of acquiring deeds to their homes or pay a $100 monthly occupancy fee to the UEP. Instead of encouraging FLDS members to cooperate with the UEP, however, church and city leaders are going to great expense to create a communal camp for the evictees to live in.
The tragedy, Wyler said, is FLDS members believe their taxes have already been paid because they gave the money for the taxes to their church leaders.
“That’s what we’re hearing,” he said. “People are getting tax bills and they’re saying, ‘We paid those taxes. We paid them to our church.’”
But whatever church leaders did with the funds, they didn’t pay them to the government. Wyler said more and more FLDS members are leaving the religion and finding that out the hard way.
“When they get out, it’s just like a wake-up,” he said. “They just get blasted with this information, then they get mad because they’ve been lied to all these years.”
more
FLDS ‘concentration camp’ goes up in Colorado City; UEP must evict or lose land | St George News
