Tenants at two mobile home parks in Bozeman are set to begin a rent strike Friday after their outgoing landlord notified residents of $97 monthly rent hikes in late March.
Occupants of over 60% of the units at King Arthur and Mountain Meadows Parks voted unanimously earlier this week to withhold their rent payments for the month of May. This move amounts to nearly $53,000, according to Bozeman Tenants United, the group organizing the effort.
A rent strike is a collective action in which tenants withhold rent payments to pressure landlords into negotiating terms. The King Arthur and Mountain Meadows chapters of Bozeman Tenants United (BTU) gave the landowner, Oakland Companies, until Thursday evening to respond. BTU Director Benjamin Finegan said that repeated inquiries from the unionized tenants have gone unanswered.
Oakland spokesperson Landy Leep told Montana Free Press that the company does not plan to meet with tenants or negotiate, and that tenants will receive a non-payment notice. If they don’t pay, Leep said, the owners will start eviction proceedings.
“[We’ve] always had an open door with individual tenants,” Leep said in a Friday phone call. “We don’t have a lease agreement with the union.”
Leep declined to comment on questions about why the landlord is raising rents, particularly as it is set to officially sell the land to a new landlord May 11.
Finegan said that the local housing advocacy group was not surprised by the news of eviction threats.
“Every striking tenant knows the risk and we’re prepared to fight,” he said in a Friday phone interview. “If they want to take folks to court we will fight tooth and nail in eviction court.”
Finegan added that BTU tenants plan to file counterclaims in court based on the parks’ “crumbling infrastructure,” and that the group will help provide legal representation for each tenant. That effort will be funded by discounted legal services offered by attorneys, an ongoing fundraising effort and the organization’s existing budget if need be, Finegan said.
These most recent rent increases — which average 11% across both parks — are the latest in a string of increases over the last couple of years. King Arthur tenant Debi Rooks said in an April 18 video posted to social media that her lot rent was $585 in 2021 when she first moved. With the most recent increase in effect, that monthly sum will be $947.
“We’re at a point here where if we do nothing, nothing changes,” Rooks said in a press release. “Even though it is terrifying to do this strike, my fear of not fighting back trumps my fear of actually doing it. We’ve got no other choice.”
BTU said in a press release that this is the first rent strike in Montana in nearly 50 years. The group said that the last known previous strike was also waged by trailer park residents.
Tenants are set to hold a rally Friday evening at King Arthur Park to kickstart the protest.
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