by William Skink

From what I am hearing today, residents of the Travois Village trailer park in Missoula have an unexpected New Year’s resolution to contend with: find a new place to live in 30 days.

Below is a screenshot to give you an idea of where this is:

This is fresh information and not being reported by any local media yet, but I predict that will soon change if what I am hearing is true.

Generally speaking, trailer parks are affordable because in most of them residents just pay lot rents (and utilities, of course), but when the land sells they face an extreme uphill battle to not be on the streets, especially if they are on month-to-month leases and have an older trailer.

The Missoulian ran a lengthy article last June about the redevelopment of trailer parks in Missoula, opening with this:

Slowly but surely, the most affordable type of housing is disappearing in Missoula County.

Since 2011, nearly 300 mobile homes have been lost here, according to Missoula County tax records. As the economy in Missoula keeps up a fiery pace, housing and land for sale are in short supply. That’s led to record home prices for the last few years, and developers are seizing every chance to snap up large chunks of land in order to build homes, condos and townhomes.

I don’t know how many people might be impacted by this latest development in Missoula’s perpetually worsening housing crisis, but if it’s accurate, where are these people going to go? The Poverello Center is full and volunteers are literally busing homeless individuals every night from the Pov to the Salvation Army.

I guess, according to the Supreme Court, residents can pitch tents on sidewalks downtown if there are no available shelter beds.

Hmmm, where would be a good place downtown to pitch a tent?

As new condos replace hundred year old houses on 4th street, and a shiny new library emerges downtown along with all the other downtown development, and Lord Checota gets set to break ground on his BIG D(rift) this summer, the poor, old and disabled keep getting fucked, over and over again.

That won’t change in 2020.

Happy New Year!