As rising costs strangle Laramie’s poorest, landlords tighten the noose

Trailer park residents receive a letter demanding their labor and banning their dogs. Rental tenants receive an email blaming the city for a rent hike. As times grow tougher, the powerful carry on.

Landlords throughout Laramie are raising rents at a time when tenants face higher costs at the gas station, the grocery store and everywhere else.

These rent hikes are justified in a number of ways — by the need for beautification, by rising property taxes, by the landlord registration fees now required by the city.

But tenants suspect these justifications are cynical at best, and possibly dishonest. Realities on the ground and information available through public records suggest the tenants might be right to harbor that suspicion.

Whatever the justification, these rent hikes come just months after the passage of Laramie’s first rental regulations. Those regulations came after a protracted fight that pitted the city’s landlords and property owners against tenants, nonprofits and progressive activists.

Across town, rental tenants continue to face rising rents. And residents of a local trailer park face demanding requirements from out-of-state investors looking to increase the value of the park.

The ongoing struggles faced by Laramie’s poorest show that the power imbalance between owners and renters persists — and that the new regulations will not resolve many of the issues still faced by Laramie’s renter majority.

Bell Leasing’s Canby Street complex, where the company is raising Michael Funk’s monthly rent. / Photo: Jeff Victor

Bell Leasing hikes rents on Canby Street, citing negligible city fee

Long before the current bout of inflation, Laramie’s government took aim at the local housing crisis. By most measures, Laramie doesn’t have enough homes. And the homes it does have are too pricey for most low- and even middle-income families.

It’s also an attractive place for both local and out-of-state landlords looking to profit off rental housing. Until recently, there were virtually no local rules dictating what a landlord could or could not rent — and horror stories abound in Laramie’s rental tenant community.

The Laramie City Council took aim at all of this in pieces. It passed affordable housing measures in multi-family and single-family zones — even though it faced opposition from those concerned about the “character” of their middle and upper-middle class neighborhoods.

And it made efforts to rein in the worst-offending landlords by establishing basic health and safety requirements for rental units in the city.

Those health and safety requirements have come under attack, however. Bell Leasing, a company that owns more than 30 rental properties across town, has brought a lawsuit against the city, claiming that the City Rental Housing Code infringes on Bell Leasing’s rights as a property owner.

Even before the rental housing code passed, several landlords threatened to raise rents if it was implemented. They claimed during city council meetings that some of the health and safety standards would require them to renovate — and the $20 per unit per year registration fee would be passed on to tenants as well.

It appears that many local landlords are making good on that threat. Tenants across town, as well as nonprofit workers, say they’ve seen rents hiked. Even a cursory scroll through local marketplace groups on Facebook confirms the same.

Michael Funk, a tenant who rents from Bell Leasing — received an email last month informing him that his two-bedroom rental would no longer cost $680 a month, but $760.

The email attributes the rent hike to three causes: “increases in property taxes, and insurance rates, as well as fees and administrative costs to comply with new city ordinances.”

But some basic math suggests that those three sources will not cost Bell Leasing the amount of money they are set to raise with this new rent hike.

At the new rate, Funk will pay an additional $960 in rent over the next 12 months. He lives in a building with 12 rental units, which sits next to another building, also with 12 units. Both buildings and all 24 units are considered a single property by the Albany County Assessor.

(Bell Leasing is not raising rents for all of its tenants across Laramie. Another tenant living in a completely separate apartment building owned by Bell Leasing said that her rent had not been raised.)

But it appears rents are rising for everyone at the 1408 East Canby Street complex. Another Canby Street tenant confirmed that their own rent was going up $80 a month, or $960 a year, same as Funk’s.

If Bell Leasing raises rents evenly for its 24 units at the Canby Street complex, they’ll take in an additional $23,040 over the next calendar year.

So, will the company see a $23,000 increase in its expenses next year?

The property taxes for the Canby Street complex did indeed shoot up last year. Property taxes in 2020 were a little more than $6,100. In 2021, that rose to just over $11,000. That’s a one-year increase of more than $4,900.

The new fees from the city, on the other hand, are negligible, at $1.67 per unit per month.

The city’s new rental housing code requires landlords and property owners to register their rental properties. To cover the cost of this new administrative burden, the city is charging a $20 per year per rental unit fee upon registration — or $1.67 per unit per month.

“It doesn’t sit right with me how they decided to call out the minor application fees with the city for a monthly rent increase of $80 a month,” Funk said.

City staff urged landlords not to pass the fee onto tenants, but many landlords, even at the time, signaled their intention to do so.

To register its 24 units at Canby Street complex, Bell Leasing will have to pay the city $480 per year.

Taken together, the math leaves a curious observer questioning the necessity of raising Funk’s rent by $80 a month.

The company will charge tenants an additional $23,000 to cover about $5,400 in property taxes and registration fees. That leaves more than $17,600 leftover to cover an unknown increase in its insurance rates.

Some caveats to this math:

• It’s possible Bell Leasing intends to use some of its new $17,600 on renovations, upgrades, or other improvements to the property. If that’s the case, it did not communicate these intentions to its residents at the Canby Street complex, and Bell Leasing’s management was unreachable for comment.

• It’s possible Bell Leasing will not collect the entirety of 12 months of rent for all 24 units. Some units could remain vacant and some months could be prorated if a tenant moves in after the first of the month. But Laramie does have a severe housing shortage, so it’s reasonable to assume that Bell Leasing won’t have too much trouble renting those units. But it is possible Bell Leasing collects slightly less than the amount figured above. Again, management was unreachable for comment.

• It’s possible that the phrase “fees and administrative costs” refers to a larger range of city fees than just the new rental registration fee, such as utilities, and that the email is simply worded vaguely. But Funk said he pays separately for most utilities outside of water.

A call to Bell Leasing’s central office Thursday afternoon was answered by an individual who said he could not comment and was not familiar with the rent increases. He also said that everyone who could answer questions was “gone for Memorial Day weekend.”

Bell Leasing’s upper management was also “out of town” when the Laramie Reporter called in February with questions about their ongoing lawsuit against the city.

Funk believes Bell Leasing is raising rents because they can, and because the new rental regulations are an easy target.

“But I’m pretty certain every landlord is doing this,” he said. “It would be a real hassle to find someone who is not doing this, or find someone who is remaining around the same price as mine originally. At least with where I’m at financially, I’ll be alright, but it still doesn’t sit right with me at all.”

It does feel weird, Funk said, to rent from the company currently suing the city to kill rental regulations.

“If it wasn’t Bell, it would be somebody else,” he said. “It just kind of sucks that it happens to be my landlord. It did feel kind of good to see them get refuted on every single point.”

It should be noted that Funk and other Bell Leasing residents say they don’t have complaints about the state of their rentals, and that when they need something fixed, the company is quick to respond. That sets them apart from some other landlords, who have gained local infamy for the alleged dilapidated state of their units.

But Funk said it’s dirty to blame an arbitrary rent hike on the city’s new rental regulations — the first real win the local renting community has seen when it comes to landlord-tenant relations.

“It’s pretty clear to me that this is the rule, not the exception,” he said. “If we’re really going to address this in ways that are going to be substantial, it would be really smart to do it through organizing as tenants, organizing ourselves. We often try to go through avenues like the city council and avenues like the state legislature. And sometimes we do get gains there, but it does tend to happen pretty slowly. And sometimes it can pan out to be a formality.”

There are whispers of tenant organizing in Laramie, but nothing concrete and nothing real as of yet. Some tenants have voiced concern that the rental regulations don’t go far enough, given the inherent power differential between property owners and tenants.

The majority of Laramie’s population are not landowners. It is a city of renters. And rent hikes are not the only burden the tenant majority is facing.

Laramie MHP demands beautification, evicts dogs

Rent has also been rising year-after-year at Laramie Mobile Home Park, where many residents feel they’re being priced out.

Nick and Kayla, whose names have been changed to protect their identities, have made their home in the trailer park for a few years now. They have children and dogs and miss the days when Ron Wade owned the park.

“But since they bought it, our rent’s gone up at least $80 each of the past two years,” Kayla said. “It seems like every year, there’s going to be a new excuse and it’s going to go up.”

Who are “they?” The answer is complex. Technically, the park is owned by a Wyoming-based company called “Laramie MHP, LLC” but it’s managed by Pathway Communities — a property management company representing the investors behind Laramie MHP and more than a dozen other mobile home communities across various states. Pathway Communities is based in Texas and the letter it sent to the trailer park residents in Laramie is similar to letters sent to other communities in its network.

When Pathway Communities took over the park, Nick and Kayla said rent for their lot was $285. Today, it’s $440 — a more than 50 percent increase from just a few years ago.

Now, trailer park residents are being told to beautify their own lots or in other words — and in the opinion of many residents — to spend their own time and money raising the value of the land they rent from a far-away company that keeps raising their rents.

Last month, Pathway sent Nick, Kayla and the rest of the park’s residents a particularly demanding letter.

The letter details the “Laramie MHP Beautification Project,” which requires park residents to make a number of changes and upgrades to their lots and trailers. Dated May 15, the letter states in bold that the deadline for completing these tasks is just one month later, June 15.

The letter requires that tenants:

• Paint their trailers in neutral “approved” colors;

• Skirt their trailers, and replace skirts if there are any holes larger than a dime;

• Remove junk from their yards;

• Tear down all fences;

• Remove hitches from their own trailers;

• And get rid of any dog weighing more than 25 pounds

“Understand this will be emotional for you, but the larger dogs are not approved by our insurance company,” the letter states. “So, please find foster homes for your pets heavier than 25 lbs unless they are Service of Emotional Support animals. Please do not buy the service animal certificates you can get from the Internet — we don’t approve them.”

That’s an intolerable and inhumane ask, Nick and Kayla said.

“My bluetick has been with me through some of the hardest times of my life,” Nick said. “I’m not getting rid of my dog. You can evict me. I’ll live in my camper before I get rid of my dog.”

Dogs are considered by many, Nick and Kayla included, to be a part of the family. On the outskirts of town, they serve as both friend and home defense.

“It’s a trailer park in Wyoming,” Kayla said. “They’re running it like it’s an apartment complex out of Dallas, Texas. That’s not where we live. Nobody around here owns chihuahuas.”

But they said it’s about more than just warding off the skunks and raccoons.

“My hound is 100 percent my best friend,” Nick said. “Before me and her were together, that dog went everywhere. He never left the bed of the truck. I worked in an oil field and that dog would ride with me every day to work. I’d stay in the shacks out at the oil field and he’d stay in the house with me 24/7 no matter what … I shouldn’t have to get a label for my dog to say he’s part of my family.”

Regional Manager Satish Atluri said banning non-service dogs over 25 pounds is a requirement of their insurance — even if dogs are frequently viewed as a member of the family and even if asking residents to eject them with 30 days’ notice is cruel.

“That’s absolutely right; I am agreeing with what you’re saying, but I don’t make the rules,” Atluri said. “We have tried multiple insurance companies.”

He reiterated that service and emotional animals are still allowed, but added that larger dogs could be dangerous.

The other requirements are less offensive, but no less demanding, Nick and Kayla said. Getting a trailer painted or a fence removed in one month’s time is simply not feasible for many of the park’s residents, Nick said.

“They’re retired,” Nick said, gesturing to his neighbors’ homes. “He’s been sick with cancer. She’s retired. They’re retired. She’s retired. That family has like five kids and one income. Most of the residents here are older.”

Nick and Kayla are still young, but the renovations would be no less of a burden to them. Nick said asking for these changes in less than 30 days is “ridiculous.”

“I shouldn’t have to pay for the things they’re wanting me to do. I shouldn’t have to sacrifice my time at work and my income — it could take a week to do all the stuff they want us to do, not including the stuff they want us to do on the trailer — and that could potentially cost me $1,000 in lost time alone.”

Other residents told the Laramie Reporter that they were either in the process of moving out or would move out once they could pull together the money to do so. They cited the most recent letter, as well as the rising rent and requirements put on them since Pathway took over. Nick and Kayla said they feel like there’s a push to price people out of their homes.

Atluri said there isn’t.

“We want them to start working on one or two things and as long as we’re seeing good progress on them, we will work with them,” he said. “We’re in business to keep our tenants in their homes and we want everyone to enjoy the beauty of Laramie Mobile Home Park. We’re not expecting miracles or anything.”

But the letter sent to Laramie Mobile Home Park residents two weeks ago is insistent.

“If the (community manager) feels progress is not being made in the first 7 days, we will be moving forward with terminating your leases,” the letter states. “Please note this is a community that all of us will be proud of and each and every one will benefit with higher home prices and better quality of living. We don’t want one bad home or one tenant not following these rules to spoil the park. Take this seriously if you want to live in this community!”

The demands take on a sick irony, Nick said, when one considers the poor conditions of the roads through the park. That’s not unique for the communities that ring Laramie, which can have roads so poorly maintained that they hinder ambulances.

Atluri said Pathway Communities fills potholes when they’re alerted to their presence, and has looked into what it would cost to pave the roads through the park.

“We did look at that,” he said. “It was so expensive to do the roads, the lot rents would have to be increased by a lot. When I personally went to talk with several residents, they said, ‘Hey, this is fine, this is not a big deal, just don’t increase lot rents.’ It would be huge and they want to keep it affordable.’”

But rents are rising anyway, Nick said, and Pathway Communities could improve the roads or make other investments at the Laramie Mobile Home Park.

“Once I see them doing some work to the trailer park, I might be more liable to want to do my own work — but you guys haven’t done anything but make it worse,” he said. “Why would I respect somebody who doesn’t give a fuck about me? I want a place where it’s safe to raise my kids but I can’t afford to live anywhere else because of the way housing is.”

Atluri said the beautification project boils down to improving the community.

“Property management companies like ours, we want to remove that stigma of a trailer park and we want to start building a manufactured housing community,” he said. “We want to start building mobile home parks, because we don’t want to be called trailer parks anymore.”

Atluri said those who don’t want to live in a nicer looking park should consider moving.

“Maybe we’re not a good fit for them if they want to live in the filth and junk and skirting torn apart and tires on the roof,” he said. “We’re putting so much effort into building nice communities, and if somebody’s complaining about that, you should ask them what kind of area they want to live in.”

But there’s really nowhere else to go, Kayla said. Both Nick and Kayla said they understand wanting the property to look nice, and added they’re willing to work with the owners to find a compromise — a nicer, more sightly fence, for example, instead of no fence at all.

But for the investors behind Pathway Communities, the park is a revenue source. For Nick and Kayla, it’s home.

“It’s annoying because you bought me, I didn’t buy you,” she said. “I wasn’t looking for a rental house and chose you. You were looking for property to buy and you bought me — that’s the way I feel. I was here first.”