On what was the coldest day of April so far, residents of two Missoula-area mobile home parks sat down for lease negotiations with their Texas-based landlord \u2014 a first in Montana history, according to the Missoula Tenants Union.<\/p>\n
Representatives from Oak Wood Ventures visited Missoula last week to meet with residents of Travois Village in Missoula and Harvey\u2019s mobile home park in Bonner, which the company bought in 2023. After rent increases and other issues, residents of the parks formed two tenants unions<\/a> and demanded Oak Wood meet with them to negotiate a new lease. <\/p>\n On Thursday, that meeting actually happened \u2014 a fact that tenant representatives celebrated as evidence that the parks\u2019 new owners were taking resident concerns seriously. Even more exciting, members of the bargaining committee said, was the fact that tenants had secured some concessions about rental protections going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a testament to the power of getting together and fighting together,\u201d Erik Brilz, a Travois Village resident and bargaining team member, told other residents after the Thursday meeting. \u201cThis is testament to the power of union organizing.\u201d<\/p>\n Dozens of residents from both parks gathered around the picnic shelter in Travois Village to hear an update from Brilz and other bargaining team members following the in-person meeting with the Oak Wood representatives, including the company\u2019s vice president and general counsel. <\/p>\n Brilz told the crowd that the Oak Wood representatives agreed to several conditions during the \u201cintense\u201d meeting that lasted more than an hour and a half, including a commitment to a negotiated lease and an option for two-year leases. Brilz also said the company representatives pledged to push internally for a 3% cap on future rent increases. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is absolutely not the end of our fight,\u201d Brilz said. \u201cWe are just getting started here.\u201d <\/p>\n Putting guardrails on rent increases is one issue looming large for residents. After Oak Wood purchased the parks in 2023, the company raised the rent on lots underneath tenants\u2019 homes by $200 in 2024. The company proposed a $150 increase in 2025 but lowered it to $50 after pushback. Travois Village residents currently pay $695 per month in lot rent and Harvey\u2019s residents pay $670. <\/p>\n Last year, the Missoula Tenants Union helped the Travois Village residents form a tenants union<\/a> to represent the 273-home park in the Westside neighborhood. Shortly after, the group worked with Harvey\u2019s residents to unionize the 39-home park in Bonner. Members of the unions formed a joint bargaining team and began meeting virtually with Oak Wood representatives in January. <\/p>\n This is the first time in Montana history that a tenants union has entered into negotiations with their landlord, won formal recognition and an agreement to collectively bargain over the next lease, said Jackson Sapp, a representative of Missoula Tenants Union. <\/p>\n Brilz told residents about other wins the unions secured after the Thursday meeting at the Missoula County Courthouse. In addition to recognizing the unions, Oak Wood agreed to not retaliate against them or individual residents and committed to negotiate a collectively bargained lease, Brilz said. The company is also open to a two-year lease term and agreed to change its payment system to reduce \u201cconvenience fees,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Brilz also said the company\u2019s general counsel and vice president committed to advocating for a 3% cap on rent increases each year for two years and to include non-metered utilities, like water and sewer, in the rent. Those decisions will ultimately be up to the company\u2019s shareholders and equity partners, Brilz said. Oak Wood also agreed to meet with NeighborWorks Montana to discuss the sale of Harvey\u2019s park to the residents. <\/p>\n \u201cSo what does this mean overall? What it means is we can expect to see more predictability in our rent increase,\u201d Brilz told the crowd. \u201cWe should not see shocks like $100 rent increases going forward.\u201d <\/p>\n Conrad Morrison, Oak Wood\u2019s general counsel, told Montana Free Press in an April interview the management team wants to help provide stability and support a long-term community at the parks. <\/p>\n Harvey\u2019s park resident Shawn Belobraidic, who also sits on the tenants\u2019 bargaining committee, said he\u2019s excited about the potential sale of the park to the residents. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the long run, a resident-owned community is the ideal direction,\u201d he said. Until residents secure that type of ownership, he added, tenants can at least continue to push for \u201cclear communication\u201d with management. <\/p>\n Belobraidic said the bargaining team is happy with the agreements they\u2019ve gotten so far, though the discussion is not over. <\/p>\n \u201cIt really was the membership that was able to give us the moral force, the moral suasion that allowed the bargaining team to argue from the position of strength,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Belobraidic also credited local legislators and county commissioners, who met with the Oak Wood representatives before the bargaining meeting, with helping to push the effort forward. After the rent increase last summer, more than a dozen lawmakers, Missoula City Council members, Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis and the Missoula County commissioners sent letters to Oak Wood<\/a> urging the company to keep rent affordable for residents. <\/p>\n Brilz told MTFP that while the company did not agree to all of the bargaining team\u2019s demands, the meeting was \u201cfar from our worst possible expectations.\u201d The union had planned to push for a rent reduction, which Brilz said Oak Wood was not open to discussing.<\/p>\n \u201cI think getting at least some verbal commitment that they would try to get a rent reduction would make me feel a lot better, because there is a lot of suffering going on at these parks due to the rent increases that have already happened,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is unfortunate that it doesn\u2019t look like we\u2019re going to make progress on that front. That being said, we have attained, I believe, the other objective, which was getting predictability in our rent increases and in our lease terms.\u201d <\/p>\n Brilz said the Oak Wood representatives didn\u2019t come with substantial decision making power and will have to run the big decisions by shareholders. <\/p>\n \u201cWe believe the Oak Wood management members that came out here, as well as the Oak Wood Properties company in general, do want to be perceived as partners in a process that will lead to a lease that tenants and Oak Wood can live with,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Lauren Cobb, vice president of Oak Wood Ventures, told MTFP that this is the first time the company has officially bargained with a tenants union but that it always listens to tenants\u2019 concerns. <\/p>\n When asked to comment on the rent increases, Morrison, the general counsel, said the company has put significant money into the parks\u2019 infrastructure, including streets, gazebos and \u201cthings you can\u2019t see.\u201d Morrison said that, after a purchase, the company works to be able to afford park improvements before they can stabilize rents. <\/p>\n Morrison said it was nice to meet people face-to-face and hear residents\u2019 stories. Oak Wood\u2019s management does not want to have continuous negotiations every nine months, he said, and supports longer lease terms to increase stability for the company and residents. <\/p>\n \u201cI think both sides are going to walk away with wins,\u201d Morrison said. <\/p>\n Ahead of the bargaining meeting, several local elected officials met with the Oak Wood representatives, including Rep. Jonathan Karlen<\/a>, a Missoula-area Democrat whose district includes Travois Village. <\/p>\n