As residents of a Missoula mobile home park raise concerns about its sale to an out-of-state investment firm, a bipartisan pair of state lawmakers plan to introduce bills providing assistance and protections to those living in manufactured housing. Katoonah Lodges Mobile Home Park, owned by an estate including John Stahl and his siblings, is a 103-unit, 55-plus community located off Mullan Road west of Missoula. Stahl declined to talk to Montana Free Press about the pending sale. The Missoulian reported that Stahl has an agreement to sell the park to Texas-based Axia Realty Partners for $11 million. One resident who asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions said until she confronted the owner in late December, the residents hadn’t received any notification of a potential sale. “If I hadn’t asked him, I probably wouldn’t have known,” she said. The resident said she and her neighbors are concerned about rent increases and being evicted to make room for redevelopment. “I’m more worried about how they snuck up behind us and we have no rights,” she said.  That lack of notification and uncertainty is something Reps. Jonathan Karlen and George Nikolakakos are attempting to prevent with proposed legislation to improve the rights of mobile home park residents.“It’s heartbreaking to see this happen,” said Karlen, a Democrat whose Missoula district includes Katoonah Lodges. “I hope we can make a change.” Nikolakakos, a Great Falls Republican, said he is a “free-market guy” who doesn’t favor rent control but believes the Legislature can help level the playing field for mobile home park residents. “The mobile home park space is pretty unique because of the power imbalance,” said Nikolakakos, who recently sold the last of three parks he owned. “The park owner owns the land and the folks living there own a home that’s difficult, expensive or impossible to move. It gives more leverage than an apartment or single-family space — I have firsthand experience and benefited from it … There needs to be some balance.” In 2023, Nikolakakos and Karlen worked together on House Bill 889, a mobile home park resident “bill of rights” that included requirements for extended lease options, a longer notification period for rent increases or rule changes, and protection for resident associations. The bill passed both chambers, but Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed it in mid-May. In his veto letter, Gianforte wrote the bill “unduly increases regulation” of mobile home parks and compromises the rights of property owners. Nikolakakos said as freshman legislators, he and Karlen were “late to the game” in conferring with the governor’s office. This session, Nikolakakos has already started talking with Gianforte’s office to increase the chance of getting a bill passed without compromising its content, he said.  The bill Nikolakakos is drafting would establish a relocation assistance fund to help residents move if their park gets redeveloped, similar to programs in other states, he said. While Nikolakakos is still ironing out the details, it’s likely park owners, and potentially residents, would pay into the fund, and residents would be entitled to a certain amount of money if they have to move their home or relocate without it, he said. The legislation could also require a developer to pay some relocation funds if they evict residents to redevelop the property, Nikolakakos said. Last year, Whitefish organizations and residents raised $164,000 to help more than two dozen households evicted from the Spring Creek Mobile Home Park in Evergreen after new owners took over, the Flathead Beacon reported. The evictions followed rent hikes and added fees. Nikolakakos said that level of community fundraising doesn’t always happen, and a state assistance fund will help residents displaced as more parks are sold and redeveloped. Nikolakakos is also working with Rep. Karlen on his bill, which creates a program to resolve disputes for mobile park residents and owners. The bill would also require notification of intent to sell and give park residents the first chance to make an offer. “We can’t prevent a park owner from selling to whomever they want, but we can require them to tell residents,” Karlen said. “Residents put their life savings into their homes. … If you’re going to sell the land out from under the feet of Montanans, you should be letting them know it’s going to happen.” Nikolakakos, who sold a Livingston community to its residents, said the model is a long-term answer to the current power imbalance.“It’s a win-win,” he said. “It solves the problem at its root and has worked so well. Many have been owned so long they pay off the mortgages and rents fall down because there’s no profit incentive.” Montana has 22 resident-owned communities (ROCs), including five in Missoula County. The communities are cooperatively owned and democratically run by residents, and rent goes only to bills and community upkeep, according to ROC USA. NeighborWorks Montana was involved in all the community purchases in the state, helping residents negotiate the sale, set up the cooperative and elect the first board, according to the organization. Adam Poeschl, a ROC acquisition specialist, said the number one thing he tells residents who ask about buying their park is that NeighborWorks needs a willing seller. “We don’t even start our process until we have a signed purchase agreement with the owner of the property,” he said. “We don’t want to lose trust if they think we’re organizing behind their back. It has to be a collaborative relationship between us, the park owner and the residents. That’s the biggest barrier is just finding mobile home park owners willing to sell to residents.” Many park owners are interested in selling because manufactured housing is “super attractive” to investors right now, Poeschl said. Like Stahl, the Katoonah Lodges owner, many park owners don’t think residents can afford the purchase and are often surprised NeighborWorks makes a market-rate offer, he said. While high interest rates make financing the purchase a challenge, NeighborWorks often gets creative to offer a fair price and keep rents affordable, Poeschl said. The organization tries to notify park owners across the state, many of whom are “mom and pop” owners, about the program, he said. “If it comes time to sell their property, obviously, they want to make a profit off that,” Poeschl said. “We hope they care about their legacy and the well-being of residents who live in the park. If that’s one of their concerns, they really can’t beat selling to residents in terms of making sure it stays affordable and isn’t redeveloped and that the residents can make infrastructure improvements and take care of the property the way they want.” The main goals of the ROC program are affordability and security, Poeschl said. “That’s why I’ve gotten so many calls from residents of Katoonah Lodges, because they’re really scared,” he said. “They don’t know what can happen with the property. They can face steep lot rent increases, rules changes that might harm their ability to have pets. There’s a potential it could get redeveloped, and 103 households would have to figure out what to do with their home and where they will live.” While converting a manufactured home park to a resident-owned community is getting more expensive, most residents are willing to make the initial investment of higher rent in exchange for security, stability and the knowledge that their money is just going to pay the bills, Poeschl said. Increases in property taxes and insurance rates have strained existing ROCs, as those costs directly translate into a higher rent, he said. Kaia Peterson, NeighborWorks executive director, said changes similar to those proposed by Karlen and Nikolakakos in their draft bills and previous failed bills would be helpful for residents, including a minimum one-year lease, limiting how large a rent increase can be in any year and establishing a relocation assistance fund.In 2021, the Legislature passed a law eliminating capital gains tax on the sale of a park to residents or a housing authority. The Montana Board of Housing is required to send out an annual notice to all park owners, informing them of this benefit and ways to connect with organizations like NeighborWorks that help facilitate that type of sale. Nikolakakos said mobile home park owners have done well over the last few years because of skyrocketing property values, making room to address residents’ concerns. Manufactured housing made up about 9%, or more than 42,000, of occupied housing units in Montana in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Those Montanans are seeing significant increases to their housing costs in rent and tax increases, Nikolakakos said.Manufactured housing made up about 9%, or more than 42,000, of occupied housing units in Montana in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.“Some of these communities are the last step before homelessness, the last piece of genuinely affordable housing out there,” he said. “This is a vulnerable population that’s falling victim to larger economic forces that are outside of their control and falling victim to equity firms consolidating this industry.” The legislators said they hope to introduce the bills by the end of the month. Nikolakakos and Karlen agreed that mobile home parks’ unique dynamic, unlike other landlord-tenant issues, was overlooked last session. “Unlike living in an apartment, if my rent goes up, it’s a hardship, but I can pack my stuff and move,” Karlen said. “People in mobile home parks own their home, they have their private property rights and moving that home is sometimes not even possible, or there’s nowhere to move them.” In-depth, independent reporting on the stories impacting your community from reporters who know your town.The post Montana legislators propose law to protect residents of mobile home parks appeared first on Montana Free Press.