Small details around Lynne Weinacker’s home illustrate a daily story — one about getting by on very little. Plastic containers labeled “flour” and “pancake” are stacked neatly on her kitchen counter, filled with bulk goods. The crate for her rambunctious dog, Ginger, fits like a puzzle piece under her kitchen table. Over nearly 20 years, Weinacker has made the two-bed, one-bath trailer in the Golden Estates Mobile Home Park a cozy home. She bought the trailer on Helena’s eastern edge, across the highway from Walmart, for about $5,000 around 2007.  For years, the rent Weinacker paid for the land beneath the trailer was manageable, the 68-year-old said during a recent interview. She raised her son and made ends meet with a paycheck as a school lunch worker. Eventually, she retired and began living on a fixed income, supplemented by her Social Security benefits. But last February, the mobile home park property changed hands, bought by a Tennessee-based owner named Abraham Anderson. With less than a month’s notice, Weinacker said, she found out about new owners, new property managers and new rent. Instead of $400 a month, she was told to pay $595.  The increase stung, Weinacker said, but she figured out how to make do. She picked up a part-time job at a local casino, delivering drinks to gamblers. Weinacker said she deals with arthritis and other disabilities, including back pain that plagues her. But she’s been working despite those conditions, at least for two days a week, she said. Sun shines through Lynne Weinacker’s window in her mobile home on Jan. 20, 2026, in Helena. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Lynne Weinacker, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, sits for a portrait in her living room on Jan. 20, 2026, in Helena. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America “I do what I gotta do,” she said. Then, in January, the tenants of the Golden Estates got notice of another rent increase, folded into a new month-to-month lease agreement.  This time, the jump went from $595 to $799 — nearly double what Weinacker and others were paying just a year earlier. This time, Weinacker started to panic. The math of the new lot rent, set against her limited income, just didn’t pencil out.  “If I could afford $800 a month, I wouldn’t live here,” she said. NEW OWNERS ON THE BLOCK Golden Estates is far from the only Montana mobile home park to have transferred ownership to an out-of-state company in recent years. Likewise, the tenants in Helena are joining many others who have experienced sudden, substantial rent hikes. But policy makers, tenants and housing advocates have said that the trend now affecting Golden Estates is a serious issue that could create ripple effects across the community. Mobile home park rent spikes undermine a rare affordable housing option, experts say, threatening to push tenants into less stable living scenarios.  “Oftentimes, it’s the last step before homelessness,” said Rep. George Nikolakakos, a Great Falls Republican lawmaker who has attempted to pass legislation to better protect mobile home park residents. “That rent starts going up on them [and] there aren’t a lot of other options.” Nikolakakos, a former mobile home park owner himself, said new owners often take a formulaic approach to raising the rents at their parks. It’s not unheard of to charge about half of whatever the market rate is for rent at a two-bedroom apartment in a given community, he said. The increases will likely create turnover, pushing some residents to sell or abandon their trailers outright rather than paying to move them. The open vacancies can then be filled by tenants who can afford to pay the new rate.  “They’ll just push it as far as they think they can go,” Nikolakakos said. State business records show that Golden Estates is now owned by Helena MHC LLC, a company that lists Anderson as its sole proprietor. The company’s mailing address is in Sevierville, Tennessee. Daylight shines on a painting in Lynne Weinacker’s, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, guest room on Jan. 20, 2026, in Helena. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Golden Estates Mobile Home Park is seen on Jan. 20, 2026, in Helena. The park was recently purchased by Abraham Anderson, based in Tennessee, and has seen a 100% increase in rent over the past year. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Anderson did not respond to repeated emails and phone calls from Montana Free Press about the rental increase at Golden Estates. But in interviews with national business podcasts, Anderson has spoken plainly about viewing mobile home parks as cash-rich investment opportunities. In a 2020 interview with Mobile Home Park University, a coaching program for investors interested in acquiring trailer parks, Anderson said he owned 11 trailer parks across multiple states. In many of those, Anderson said, he had increased profitability by cutting costs and raising rents. “[R]aising rents, because that’s the easiest. Costs you a postage stamp to raise the rent,” Anderson said during the interview.  In a January letter shared with MTFP by Weinacker, the new property management company hired by Anderson cited several reasons for raising tenants’ rents. Among them, the new landlord cited increasing operations and maintenance costs, insurance rates and property taxes. According to county records, property taxes for the land under the Prospect Avenue trailer parks owned by Helena MHC LLC have increased about 19% since 2020. But taxes for the park that includes Weinacker’s home actually decreased in the most recent assessment period leading up to the change in ownership. The taxes went down by more than $900 between 2024 and 2025, to an annual sum of $26,050 from $26,974. Harold Lesh, another Golden Estates tenant, owns three trailers at the park that he rents to family members. He said he’s struggling to pay rent for the sites of each one — a fact he said is all the more frustrating because he owns the structures on top of that land. “We’re renting a piece of grass,” Lesh said in an interview with MTFP. “They don’t own the trailer. They just own the piece of the grass that I’m sitting on.” Weinacker and other tenants say the quality of streets, communal spaces and infrastructure has not obviously improved since Anderson’s company took over. In 2025, tenants repeatedly lost water access and were under boil-water advisories to mitigate risks of E. coli and other contaminants. One notice about a boil order was posted on traffic cones placed in the park’s streets.  “They have done no maintenance here whatsoever. Whatsoever,” Weinacker told MTFP. Calls and emails from MTFP to the property manager listed on letters to the tenants were not returned. OTHER OPTIONS FEW AND FAR BETWEEN Last Wednesday evening, dozens of tenants from Golden Estates and some other local mobile home parks filled a community room at the county’s public library to talk about possible strategies for coping with the rocketing rent increases. The meeting was moderated in part by Amy Hall, a senior housing attorney with the nonprofit Montana Legal Services Association, and by a representative from the Prickly Pear Housing Alliance, a local housing advocacy group. During the discussion, Hall asked the tenants what communication they had received from the new owner and property manager, and whether maintenance work had been addressed. The room erupted in sarcastic laughter.  Residents said that they had not seen improvements to the property and that communication from the property managers had been sporadic and, for most, non-existent. Some recounted fallen trees that had not been cleaned up or removed, outdated water service and inadequate water quality. Hall affirmed that those fixes should fall to the property owner, not residents.   As for potential avenues for legal action, Hall said, there are few protections for tenants under Montana state law.  “Montana doesn’t put a cap on the amount of rent that can be charged by a landlord,” Hall said in a later interview with MTFP. “There’s nothing in the law that says the rent increase can only be 10% or even 20%.” Amy Hall, a senior housing attorney with the nonprofit Montana Legal Services Association, gives advice to residents of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park on how to approach their new landlord, Tennessee-based owner named Abraham Anderson, who is based in Tennessee. Over the past year, Anderson has raised lot rents from $400 to $800 a month. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America A resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park asks a question during a meeting with local nonprofits, lawyers and housing groups. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Hall pointed out one potential point of leverage that could apply to Golden Estates tenants: Montana’s legal requirement for a landlord to provide at least 30 days’ notice about rent increases. But that timeline only starts when the notice is received by tenants, rather than the date it was postmarked.  In the case at Golden Estates, Hall told MTFP, many tenants received notice of the increase around Jan. 5, meaning they could be shielded from having to pay the new $799 increase effective Feb. 1. That timeline and legal protection could become important if tenants face eviction for refusing to pay the rent increase in February, Hall said. In that situation, she said, the Montana Legal Services Association would consider representing tenants in court. “What we look for are cases where we can preserve somebody’s housing and where they have legitimate, solid legal grounds for defense,” Hall said. During the Wednesday meeting, Hall stressed that the other tool for tenants to consider is collective action. Dozens of tenants asking the new owner for a reversal of the rent increase might go further than a message from one individual, she said. Speaking to MTFP after the meeting, Hall said, the tenants of Golden Estates already seem organized and motivated to push for change. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. And usually when those evening meetings are set up, especially when they’re so far away from where the tenants live … usually hardly anybody would come,” Hall reflected, saying she expected to see less than a dozen tenants there. “It was astonishing to see 50 people in that room, and standing room only.” “This is just turning their own lives upside down,” Hall added. “That’s why I think so many people showed up.” A MOBILE HOME THAT’S HARD TO MOVE Without a rent decrease or other financial support, Weinacker considered a short list of other options to keep her housing. She could move in with her son, a 35-year-old Bozeman resident. But Weinacker said she’s reluctant to move to Bozeman, which she describes as “too crowded.” She also said she’s saddened at the thought of not having a space to herself. Another idea Weinacker had was to move her trailer to a plot of land that her niece owns in the Helena Valley. That option quickly dwindled when she learned that connecting the trailer to water and sewer could cost thousands of dollars.  Golden Estates Mobile Home Park is seen on Jan. 20, 2026, in Helena. The park was recently purchased by Abraham Anderson, based in Tennessee, and has seen a 100% increase in rent over the past year. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Moving the trailer anywhere would be labor-intensive and probably expensive, she said, given that it was originally built in the 1960s. Nikolakakos, the Great Falls lawmaker, said costs for uprooting a mobile home — including unhooking water and gas, detaching the skirting and any outdoor railings or porches, physically moving the structure and then re-attaching everything — would rack up costs in the ballpark of $10,000, at a minimum.  Nikolakakos pointed to local groups that have tried to address the high moving costs faced by tenants forced out of parks after ownership changes. In Whitefish, local nonprofits raised $160,000 to help 26 families and individuals with relocation costs, giving each household roughly $5,000. Housing support groups said that aid helped prevent many families from falling into homelessness.  Sometimes, when Weinacker is at a loss for what to do, she thinks about other people like her who might be facing similar hardships. She wishes there were statewide laws that protect tenants from rent spikes. She wishes there were more affordable housing options for low-income people like herself. She wishes all her neighbors could have a place to call home for the long term. “I don’t know what half of these people are gonna do,” Weinacker said. “We live up here because we’re poor.” A Helena Youth Soccer award hangs in the living room of Stephanie Ochoa, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, on Jan. 30, 2026, in Helena. Ochoa lives in the mobile home with her husband, two children and dog, Pork Chop. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Stephanie Ochoa, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, watches as her two children do their homework in the living room on Jan. 30, 2026, in Helena. Ochoa also attends classes at Helena College and works part time at a flower shop to make ends meet. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Stephanie Ochoa, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, poses for a portrait in her yard on Jan. 30, 2026, in Helena. She recently redid the bathroom and had a deeper tub installed so she and her family could bathe more comfortably. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America A classic book collection sits on a shelf in the room of Clare José, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, on Jan. 29, 2026, in Helena. José’s bedroom was an addition to her mobile home that required structural changes. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Clare José, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, poses for a portrait in her pet’s room on Jan. 29, 2026, in Helena. José, who has rented for most of her life, let her son paint the room however he wanted as a celebration of owning her home. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America A mobile home for sale at Golden Estates Mobile Home Park is seen on Jan. 29, 2026, in Helena. According to Lorri Sandrock, the home has been for sale for a while, but no one wants to buy it because of increased lot rent. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Lorri Sandrock, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, pets her dog, Shadow, on Jan. 29, 2026, in Helena. Recently retired, Sandrock has put thousands of dollars into her double-wide, three-bedroom, two-bath home to create a peaceful sanctuary for herself. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America SiDonia Montana, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, sits in her chair with her dog, Symba, on Jan. 29, 2026, in Helena. Montana has a disability and lives on a fixed income. After rent for the mobile home lots increased from $400 to $800 over the past year with new owners, most of her monthly income has gone toward rent. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America SiDonia Montana, a resident of Golden Estates Mobile Home Park, smiles in a photo with her grandmother that is seen, on Jan. 29, 2026, in Helena. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America Light shines through a window onto SiDonia Montana’s bed on Jan. 29, 2026, in Helena. Montana started sharing her mobile home with a friend in December to help cover the rent increases. Credit: Lauren Miller, Montana Free Press, CatchLight Local/Report for America The post Rent hikes hammer residents of Helena trailer court appeared first on Montana Free Press. ...read more read less