Nearly three quarters of the residents of a huge 273-unit mobile home park in Missoula have formed a tenants union in response to large rent increases implemented by a Texas-based company.
“Today, I’m thrilled to announce that we have organized the largest property-level tenants union in Missoula,” said Kathy Kelly, a longtime resident of Travois Village trailer park.
She’s known as “auntie” by the kids in the park, and bought her home in 2005 after having health problems.
Travois Village is located at 2000 Palmer Street in the Westside neighborhood, which is one of the lowest-income neighborhoods in town. The park was bought in 2023 by an LLC based in Texas, and is managed by Oak Wood Properties, a company that owns and manages trailer parks across the country. When the out-of-state firm bought the property, residents were paying around $395 a month to rent the lots under their trailers. In 2024, residents were given a $200 monthly lot rent increase. Then, in 2025, residents were notified of another $150 monthly rent hike.
After a Missoulian story broke the news of the latest rent hike and state lawmakers got involved in the situation, the company backed off and only raised lot rents by $50 this year. But the residents say the rent hikes are still outrageous for people who live on fixed incomes. Property tax records show the company’s property taxes only increased by $14,000 per year from 2023 to 2024. The two new rent hikes will increase the owner’s revenue by nearly $820,000 per year, before expenses.
“Most of the people in this family community are on fixed incomes,” Kelly explained to a large crowd gathered in the park’s common area. “We have a set amount of money we get each month, and that doesn’t increase when the rent goes up. Many residents here are elderly, single and struggling each and every day to make ends meet.”
She said one of her neighbors can now no longer afford heart medicine. And Kelly recalled him saying that “he was gonna die anyway.”
“That’s not right,” she said. “Oak Wood has disrupted our lives, our peace of mind, but not our dignity to keep our homes. A tenants union is a collection of neighbors who come together to make real changes.”
Wearing a T-shirt that said “member of the renter class,” park resident Shane McLaughlin spoke to the crowd about how he and his wife are trying to raise two young boys with good principles, morals, ethics and common decency.
“I try to teach my sons the value of hard work, honesty, integrity and transparency,” he said. “Oak Wood is making this foundation of family values even harder to achieve and instill by bringing higher costs of living and lack of stability and security while imposing worry and discontent.”
Oak Wood has not responded to a request for comment from the Missoulian.
The Travois Village Tenants Union was formed with help from the nonprofit Missoula Tenants Union. Of the 273 occupied units at Travois Village, 194 residents have signed on to be part of the union, which makes it a “supermajority” of 71% union membership.
Union members at Travois Village have sent a proposed set of new lease terms to Oak Wood Properties. They include a cap on lot rent increases to be no more than 3% per year, tied to the federal Cost of Living Adjustment for Social Security increases. The residents would also like safety and management issues addressed.
“Travois Village should be a stepping stone for new families and individuals who work hard to attain the security of homeownership,” McLaughlin said. “Instead, Oak Wood is bleeding us dry and trying to exploit our vulnerabilities using fear, high-pressure tactics, and lottery incentives to persuade us to sign a new lease. These tactics hold no place in our community.”
A resident named Linda, who didn’t want to give her last name, said she and her husband have lived in the park for 49 years. She said since out-of-state companies have owned the park for the past 15 years, there’s been less and less investment in the community, including the removal of a heated pool and the removal of sheds.
Jackson Sapp, of the Missoula Tenants Union, said the issue is indicative of a larger trend.
“What we see happening here at Travois Village is not a unique situation,” he said. “It’s part of a much bigger picture of what’s happening in our town across Missoula. Hundreds of other properties are facing the same conditions, the same neglect, the same unconscionable rent hikes that are pushing us out of our homes onto the street. And folks are fed up with it.”
David Erickson is the business reporter for the Missoulian.
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