Amid ‘economic eviction,’ residents find hope for housing authority

After two years of fighting rent increases, residents of four mobile home parks in Latah County have had their past due balances reversed — for now. 

“They tried to charge me $180 more for lot rent, and that accrued over time,” said Suzy James, a resident of Woodland Heights Community in Moscow, Idaho. She said the new owners tried to raise her lot rent from $340 per month to $525. 

“I continued paying the same rent because they didn’t properly notify us of the rent increases,” James said. 

Residents of mobile home communities often own their homes but pay “lot rent” to landlords who own the land beneath their houses. 

Residents of Hurst & Son-owned parks in Idaho have received notices  that eventually grew to amounts in the thousands. People who received those notices were told to pay or they may be given a notice to vacate.

People living in the parks formed a resident cooperative in 2023, and started working with attorneys at the Intermountain Fair Housing Council.

Residents from four mobile home parks in Latah County gather at the 1912 Center in Moscow to learn about resident-owned communities from ROC Northwest. (Credit: Lauren Paterson / NWPB)

The council assisted one of the tenants with a lawsuit in 2024. Part of the negotiated settlement with Hurst & Son, a Port Orchard, Washington-based real estate investment company, credited the tenant with the money they had paid beyond their normal rent rate.

“We were ready to mount a multi-park lawsuit against them because of that settlement,” said James.

“It is our best guess that those of you with a credit amount on your account will be treated the same way as this tenant — you will not owe any rent to H&S (Hurst & Son) until that credit is exhausted,” the council said in a letter to tenants last month.

Attorneys with the council warned residents in the letter to prepare for another round of new leases.

Some residents have received notices of a rent increase starting on March 1. 

“We’re looking at mass economic eviction, like hundreds of residents,” said Sipley, who is a full-time student with a work-study position they do remotely. 

Sipley has student loans and said they are on food stamps. “There is no more money I can give them,” they said. 

Soon, residents like Sipley and James will have to decide whether to stay and pay the increase in lot rent, or try to find a new place to live. 

“I would love nothing more than to get away from Hurst,” said James, who bought her trailer eight years ago. She put work and money into it, hoping it would pay off. 

“Now, I feel like they are taking away all of the value of my trailer,” she said. 

Woodland Heights, where James lives, suffered water issues this past fall with residents going without water for a week. Then, they were told to boil their water for three weeks. Residents were given a notice that their water service line “may be composed of lead” and to seek water treatment or other sources of water in a notice sent by park management. 

“Who would pay any reasonable price for it with lot rent at $600, and they can’t guarantee that there would be water, let alone drinkable water,” James said.

With the inevitable rent rises on the horizon, the goal now is for people living in the parks to work with the city of Moscow to form a housing authority, Sipley said. 

Housing authorities can receive federal grants, build affordable housing and make sure housing is safe and sanitary. A housing authority can also accept land donations for future plans. 

“The big picture is creating a community from the ground up,” said Sipley, who envisions an intergenerational space on a new piece of land with a mix of affordable tiny homes. 

The idea would be to build a resident-owned community where students, veterans, retirees, disabled people and people on fixed or low incomes could live without the constant threat of being displaced, Sipley said. 

“There could even be a community space like a gym, shared storage space and possibly transient housing in addition to permanent dwellings,” they said.

To start a housing authority would mean a financial and staffing commitment, said Cody Riddle, the deputy city administrator for the city of Moscow. 

“Before we can even get that far, the Moscow City Council would need to decide this is a project the city wants to explore,” he said. “We’re always open to conversations around housing and affordable housing.”

The next step is for Sipley and James, who both serve on the board of directors for the resident cooperative, to meet with members of the Moscow City Council to start the work on creating the housing authority, Sipley said. 

“That is my dream, creating the place that we’d like to live,” they said.

Hurst & Son did not respond to a request for comment. The company owns parks across the Northwest and North Dakota, and is under investigation by the Washington state attorney general.