Just off a busy intersection west of Bozeman, a wooden sign marks the entrance to King Arthur mobile home community. Signs ask drivers to slow down, and the late evening has kids cruising on bikes and a small pond hosts a large group of ducks.
Last Friday a group of residents of King Arthur as well as a nearby mobile home park Mountain Meadows gathered in the lawn next to the duck pond to announce their recently formed tenant union.
President of the King Arthur Tenant Union, Timaree Driscoll, has lived in the area for decades.
“I'm incredibly grateful for my home here. I have six children, two of them grown now. There's nowhere else in this valley that I could afford to raise my family” Driscoll said.
The homes originally built in 1973 have remained affordable as housing costs in the valley have risen sharply.
Residents recently saw the commercial listings of the property by owner Oakland Companies based in Billings. Fearing a sale of the property would bring rent hikes or displacement, a majority of the households have formed a union with an effort to purchase the property collectively and become a resident owned community.
“We own homes on someone else’s land. Alone that is a very small feeling , together we are much stronger, together we have a bigger voice” Driscoll said.
The group has received written support from the wider community including state legislatures, as well as all of the Gallatin county commissioners and Bozeman City Commissioners.
YPR did reach out to Oakland Companies for comment on this story, but we have not heard back at this time.
