Montana mobile home park residents struggle to stay in their homes as rents rise

In the midst of a housing crisis in Montana, where home prices have risen 66% in the last four years alone, residents of the state’s most affordable housing option – mobile home parks – are fighting their own battle to level the playing field between them and big investment companies. buying out small park owners across the state.

Rising home values ​​in Montana are well outpacing the national increase of 50% from 2020, and as the 2025 legislative session approaches, residents are hoping lawmakers will add protections that will prevent them from being economically forced from their homes.

In her 2023 address to the Senate Business, Labor and Affairs Committee, Highwood resident and longtime advocate for manufactured and mobile home owners Cindy Newman details changes to rent increases for sites in seven parks that have been gobbled up by large investment firms, pointing to her rent for her Billings lot had risen a total of $117, or 3% to 4% each year, in the 20 years preceding the takeover. In the three years following Havenpark’s purchase, site rents increased by $391, or 138%.

Utah-based Havenpark Communities operates manufactured homes across the country and is committed to growth, according to its website.

Vivian Rambo, a resident of Countryside in Great Falls, has a similar experience.

“When I moved here, lot rent was $150,” says Rambo, who moved to the park in 1995. “Now, with additional utilities, it’s $550 a month, but new people coming in are $700 or more.”

Countryside was purchased by Havenpark about four years ago and currently has current site rents ranging from $475 to $775. The firm currently owns seven mobile home parks in Montana located between Kalispell, Great Falls and Billings, totaling more than 1,800 lots, with a controversial 276-lot expansion planned at Golden Meadows in Billings’ West End.

Along with the sharp increase in site rent, residents will have to pay separate utility fees that were once included in site rent. And if residents want to move, they say, they have few options.

“It costs $15,000 to $20,000 to move a trailer and there’s nowhere to move it, and then you’re stuck,” Rambo told the Daily Montanan. “Once you get there and the rents keep going up, you kind of lock yourself into it. You can’t sell it, you can’t leave unless you just leave the house and give it to them, which I know has happened on a few occasions.”

Keeping tenants in immovable trailers paying ever-increasing lot rent is not an unfortunate side effect of the business, but rather its most important feature, according to Mobile Home University co-founder Frank Rolfe, who famously spoke to Bloomberg about the business. models. feels like the launch of Waffle House with everyone chained to the booths.

This sentiment is reflected in the original copy of Havenpark’s website in 2016, when they praised residents’ inability to move their trailers as a major selling point: “Tenant turnover is also minimal as it is difficult and very expensive ($6,000-$8,000) for renters to move their Houses. As a result, operating cash flow is among the highest of any property class.”

Havenpark was even accused of preventing residents from moving their trailers. In a 2022 lawsuit, residents of Meadowlark Park in Billings sued Havenpark over unsafe water conditions and illegally disabling hooks in residents’ mobile homes, preventing them from moving.

Reply from Havenpark

Havenpark was contacted for this story. A company spokesperson responded with this statement to questions posed by the Daily Montanan:

“Havenpark is proud to offer quality, affordable homes in beautiful communities in beautiful Montana. Each year, we invest heavily in improving and modernizing all of our Montana properties, including upgrades to infrastructure, roads, landscaping, public spaces and other amenities that make our communities even more enjoyable for current and future residents.

“In some of our communities, years of deferred maintenance by previous owners have impacted the condition of the area’s basic infrastructure. We are working as quickly as possible to make repairs when necessary and are making progress in updating aging infrastructure.

“We are committed to creating lasting value for our residents. Across Montana, Havenpark has invested twice as much money into our communities as we received through rent increases. While housing costs are rising sharply across the state (in Montana they have roughly doubled since 2020), we have increased rents for our residents at a much slower pace. These rent increases have allowed us to invest in improving communities, making them significantly better places for our residents to live. The improvements also increase the resale value of our residents’ homes, which directly benefits them financially.

“In Montana and every state where we operate, we always welcome feedback and have never forced residents to leave to express their concerns. Retaliation goes against our principles and is often against the law.”

In addition to rising site rents and the inability to relocate, the park lacks maintenance, which Newman calls “an ongoing environmental and public safety problem.”

“The service is terrible,” echoes Rambo. “You can go and tell them what your problem is, but they don’t listen. They just tell you, ‘Yes, ma’am,’ and you go back to waiting.”

Legal protection? Not in Montana

If residents raise concerns, they risk facing direct retaliation, they told the Daily Montanan.

“Older people are scared to death of this,” Rambo said, referring to the park’s behavior toward residents calling attention to specific issues. “They’ll sue you or evict you and things like that.”

Efforts to pass stricter protections have repeatedly failed in the state Legislature or been vetoed by the governor.

Sen. Brian Hoven, R-Great Falls, introduced Senate Bills 362, 268 and 269 during the 2021 legislative session.

Senate Bill 362 sought to create an appeals process for residents facing rent increases of more than 3% in one month, as well as resources intended to protect landlords from retaliation by landlords. Senate Bill 268 would allow residents to petition local officials to condemn their park if rents rise “significantly above the consumer price index” and would also allow homeowners in a park to create a resident-owned community (ROC) and purchase the park from cities. or district. Both measures failed to make it through their respective committees.

Senate Bill 269 was passed and signed into law by Gov. Greg Gianforte, a Republican, but it was amended significantly from its original form, which required parks to give residents 90 days’ notice of a park sale to give them time to arrange the purchase among themselves. The form of the bill signed by Gianforte makes no mention of the 90-day notice, instead offering an incentive for park owners to sell their park to residents by exempting the sale from capital gains taxes.

Residents were hopeful in the 2023 legislative session as House Bill 889 passed through both chambers of the Legislature with overwhelming bipartisan support. The bill would make changes such as requiring park owners to give residents 60 days’ notice of rent increases rather than 30 days, and giving residents the option of a full year lease instead of a monthly lease.

Gianforte immediately vetoed the bill.

“I will be the first to say that this bill would not solve all the problems facing mobile home owners,” said Rep. Jonathan Karlan, a Missoula Democrat who sponsored the bill. “But I would say that the park owners have a tremendous amount of power over these residents right now, and this bill would give residents a little more time and decision-making power.”

Karlan continues to explain that the problem is not just in Havenpark.

“I have constituents who engage in predatory and unfair practices and do not live on Havenpark property, and we need to pass strong laws that protect Montanans from unfair practices, period, whether they come from private capital or from a private citizen,” he said.

Learning from other countries

Faced with growing frustration and limited options, Newman and other advocates are looking to successful programs in other states for inspiration. For example, Colorado’s mobile home park oversight program provides a model for how Montana can address the crisis.

The Colorado program, administered by the Department of Housing, administers the Mobile Home Park Act and provides a dispute resolution and compliance program. He oversees several key functions related to mobile home parks, including conducting outreach and education on relevant laws and receiving and investigating all complaints. It also facilitates the resolution of disputes between mobile home owners and landlords, identifies legal violations, enforces compliance, and participates in the development of public rules to clarify regulations, allowing mobile home owners, park owners and managers to submit complaints for resolution without resorting to costly litigation. .

“The issues that arise when your landlord is private investors can be very costly to go to court,” Newman said. “It’s a David versus Goliath situation that residents can neither win nor afford.”

To fund the program, proponents are proposing a modest fee split between park owners and residents, similar to Colorado, where they set $50 a year per site, split between the landlord and resident.

As Montana prepares for the 2025 legislative session, residents remain hopeful that Montana leaders will finally listen to their pleas.

“I like living in my house,” Rambo said. “I just don’t like the way the corporation is running this because they are only working for their own benefit, lining their pockets, and they don’t care about the residents. There are so many older people there who are on fixed incomes. I don’t know how long they can pay the rent if it keeps going up. Luckily I’m still working, but I’m 76 years old and how long can I work?”

Newman shares the same sentiment.

“People are suffering and we are looking for a fair and just solution,” she said. – And we’re running out of time.

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