Three women sitting around a kitchen table in Great Falls didn’t know each other before a shared predicament brought them together.
"What was that nickname they gave us … the three little ladies from Great Falls, or three nice ladies, or something," Vivian Rambo asks.
Rambo is reminiscing with Cindy Newman and Jan Bailey about their road trips to the Montana Legislature last winter. The women are all retired and in their 70s. They’re also manufactured homeowners living on rented lots, and they want more legal protection.
The company that owns Newman’s park increased rents for new tenants from $288 per month to $875 per month after buying the land. The company also made water, sewer and trash pickup separate charges.
Newman doesn’t have any recourse if costs become untenable.
"I really saw that I could very easily lose my home," Newman says.
Private companies began buying up manufactured home parks across the country several years ago, finding them to be good investments. That can leave park residents dealing with faceless, often out-of-state, landlords.
Manufactured homes have long been considered affordable housing, but that’s not always the case anymore. Many residents are on fixed or low incomes.
That includes Bailey, who retired and moved to a mobile home after her husband died in 2017. She says rent hikes don’t come with better management or amenities. It’s often hard to push back when corporate landlords make changes.
"There isn’t anything people can really do individually, I think," Bailey says, "and just because this business model is so widespread."
Park residents in Helena, Billings and Missoula have had similar experiences.
Amy Hall is an attorney with Montana Legal Services Association who’s represented tenants for two decades. She says investors can be detached from the communities they buy.
“They're not going to church with the residents who live in their park, like used to be pretty common," Hall says. "You know, you’d see them at the grocery store. And that’s a whole different dynamic. It’s a lot easier for a park owner to deny services or not to be as responsive.”
Hall says Montana law favors landowners. That’s rooted in the Mountain West’s culture, she says.
"It’s almost a gut instinct that you don’t mess with somebody’s land. Everybody recognizes that as almost untouchable or sacred."
There has been a bipartisan effort to give Montana manufactured homeowners more rights, but it’s rolled out in fits and starts.
In 2021, a bill would have created an appeal process for park tenants who saw a 3% or greater increase in rent, but it failed to pass.
Other legislation proposed in 2023 was essentially a bill of rights for mobile home residents. It would have created new regulations for landlords, like requiring 60 days' notice before a lease ends.
Republican Rep. George Nikolakakos of Great Falls, who owns three manufactured home parks, supported that last bill.
"I read it as a landlord, as an owner of mobile home parks, and it doesn’t threaten me at all. It really would only threaten bad actors," Nikolakakos said.
But Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed that bill, saying the state cannot jeopardize landowners’ rights or future investment in manufactured home parks.
In 2025, Democratic Rep. Jonathan Karlen of Missoula pitched creating a mobile home dispute resolution program for landlords and tenants, modeled after a Colorado policy.
"When you’ve put your life savings into a manufactured home, moving that home can be tens of thousands of dollars with nowhere to go," Karlen told lawmakers.
Chuck Denowh is a lobbyist who represents Utah-based Havenpark Communities. The company owns several parks in Montana, including The Highwoods in Great Falls. Denowh spoke against that bill, saying it would hurt both landlords and tenants.
"These are a fairly significant cost to resolve," he said. "I can tell you that when the cost of doing business increases, prices increase. So in this case, that means rent increases."
That bill also failed to pass the state Legislature.
But the three women living in Great Falls don’t plan to give up, despite the lack of progress.
Again, Cindy Newman.
"Really, it’s 'do we want to keep our home or not?' That’s the determining factor.
Their next opportunity for legislative change won’t come until 2027.
