'Final straw': Bozeman mobile home tenants authorize strike amid rent hikes

The tenants of King Arthur and Mountain Meadows mobile home parks and the owner of the land beneath them are both aware that Montana law forbids withholding rent as a form of protest.

Yet, after a late-night April 28 vote, the two sides are on a collision course as Oakland Companies prepares to leverage the law and the tenants have authorized a rent strike anyway.

The vote could mark Montana’s first rent strike in nearly a half-century, pitting the legal weight of the Montana Residential Mobile Home Lot Rental Act against a community willing to risk eviction rather than be priced out of the valley.

“Tenants’ greatest power is our rent,” an April 29 press release from Bozeman Tenants United states. “A rent strike is a disciplined, collective action in which tenants strategically withhold their rent to negotiate for a shared goal with their landlord.”

For nearly a decade, the land beneath King Arthur and Mountain Meadows was held by the Billings-based Oakland Companies. When the parks hit the market last year, more than half of the residents organized chapter unions under Bozeman Tenants United to launch a community-driven bid, hoping to purchase the land themselves and preserve some of Bozeman’s last affordable housing.

That bid was ultimately rejected and Oakland sold the properties to a California-based developer — an entity whose identity remains undisclosed to the residents and the union.

Oakland remains the owner of record until the sale officially closes May 11, but the breaking point for tenants arrived sooner. The authorized strike is a standoff over a $97 rent increase scheduled for May 1 — a hike the union says is the final straw for residents who are already struggling to afford the high cost of living in the valley.

Landy Leep, vice president of Oakland Companies, confirmed the company received notice of the strike authorization but maintains that management will not meet with the tenants or union to negotiate.

“We have repetitively said no to that,” Leep said of a potential meeting. “And that is still the case.”

A rent strike, Leep emphasized, is prohibited by state law, and Oakland Companies is prepared to respond with the full weight of that statute. According to a letter sent to tenants April 16, that could mean late fees and eviction proceedings.

While acknowledging receipt of the strike notice, Leep said the company is dismissing it because the email was sent by Bozeman Tenants Union executive director Benjamin Finegan, who is not a park resident.

“He’s not a customer of ours,” Leep said. “So I don’t care who he is.”

To Finegan, the company’s arguments are moot. The residents, he said, know Finegan is not a park neighbor, and are keenly aware that a rent strike is illegal. But in regards to the law, Finegan argues the residents aren’t the ones who broke it first.

“Oakland’s failure to maintain the parks is illegal,” Finegan said. “He owes a substantial debt to every tenant in King Arthur and Mountain Meadows for his failure to repair crumbling infrastructure.”

Before the strike was authorized, Oakland management already moved to preemptively defend its record. In a letter sent to residents April 16 — issued shortly after the company learned of the union’s organizing efforts — Oakland pushed back against claims of neglect.

The company wrote that it has invested “prudently” in the parks’ infrastructure, asserting that the “nurturing” of its residents has remained a top priority.

For Debi Rooks, a member of the union’s bargaining team and a resident of King Arthur Park, that description does not match her lived experience. She described murky water that leaves sand and silt residue in her sink and wears down the enamel, untrimmed tree branches that pose a risk of falling on homes or cars, and management that she said shifts maintenance costs onto residents.

But the decision to authorize a rent strike, she said, is not just about the alleged maintenance issues or the $97 increase in rent. It’s about how quickly costs have climbed. When Rooks and her husband bought their home in 2021, the lot rent was $595. By May, it is set to reach $950.

Even before the increase, Rooks said money was tight enough that she cannot remember the last time she and her husband went out to dinner. Now, facing the higher rent, they are rearranging their finances and looking for ways to cut back on expenses like insurance and groceries to make ends meet.

What’s worse, Rooks said, is that she considers herself among the “lucky ones.” As a cancer survivor, she receives a monthly Social Security payment and her husband works full-time. The increase will be difficult, she said, but manageable.

For some of her neighbors, that is not the case.

“One of our neighbors has to give up his Life Alert. And that’s just freaking scary,” Rooks said. “This isn’t about the $97. This is the final straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Describing the April 28 meeting, Rooks said union members voted unanimously in favor of the rent strike, creating what she described as an energized sense of solidarity in the room.

“Everybody in that room understands that we have each other’s backs,” Rooks said. “It’s going to be hard to pick us off one at a time and we’re not going to go down quietly.”

Rooks said she and her neighbors know they are in for a fight, but one they are prepared to take on. Eviction has been on residents’ minds since Oakland sold the property in July, though it is not a step the company can take unilaterally.

“He can say the word ‘eviction’ all he wants,” Rooks said. “But until it goes through a court, it’s just a word.”

While the strike is, in part, a response to Oakland, it is also intended as a message to the new owners. Rooks said residents are hoping for a positive change and for ownership willing to meet with tenants and address their concerns in a direct and transparent way.

If not, she said, tenants believe it is important to demonstrate now that they are willing to take a stand.

“We’re at a point here where if we do nothing, nothing changes,” Rooks said. “Even though it is terrifying to go through and do this strike, sometimes the fear of not fighting back is stronger than the fear of actually doing it.”

If tenants follow through, the standoff will move from warning to action within days. Residents of the parks plan to rally to launch the rent strike at 6 p.m. May 1 at King Arthur Park, marking the first test of how far both sides are willing to go.