'It's like a scheduled tornado'

Local trailer park residents see few options ahead of lease cancellations

Residents of a trailer court near the heart of Arnolds Park feel trapped between a rock and hard place.

Most of the people living within Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage were notified they will have to relocate by Aug. 4, following Midwest Partners Development LLC's purchase of the land in early May, but several residents say they don't have the funds to leave — especially not within the 90-day window they were given during a bustling Lakes Area summer.

Some of the residents said they've been losing sleep over the issue and feel their emotional wellbeing has declined as they try to find solutions.

"You get to point where you reach the end of your rope," resident Renee Comstock said.

Midwest Partners declined to be interviewed by the Dickinson County News but did volunteer some information in an unsigned June 15 email. The company specified the tenants have been leasing the individual lots — not the trailers themselves — and it is the lot leases which are to be cancelled next month. The company also noted in an email to the Dickinson Count News that the residents were given 90 days notice of the cancellation — 60 more than the residents were guaranteed in their original leases.

Resident Larry Tech said he and others suspected the trailer court property was going be sold after several condominiums were constructed just across the property line to the east, and Tech questioned why the residents weren't informed of this year's sale sooner.

The Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage lots were sold to Midwest Partners for $85,000 on May 1, 2023, according to county records. Midwest Partners said the trailer court is currently unsustainable as a business, claiming 80 percent of the tenants were behind on rent by multiple months. The company also pointed to what it called the "deplorable conditions" of the property and some of the trailer units — some residents contend the previous property owner rarely provided maintenance and upkeep of the court.

"We don't have any plans finalized for what will come of the property, but our goal is to provide a positive impact on the local community by cleaning up this area with multi-family housing and/or commercial development," Midwest Partners said.

Several current residents assume the trailer court will be replaced with condos similar to those to the east of their homes.

Chris St. Clair, pastor of Calvary United Methodist Church in Arnolds Park, attempted to contact the Red Cross regarding the situation. St. Clair — whose church stands about a half-mile down U.S. Highway 71 from Okoboji Trailer Court and Storage — was himself renting a storage unit on the property. He learned of the tenants' frustrations after receiving his own notice of the upcoming lease cancellations, and he preached on the subject earlier this summer. St. Clair said the Red Cross isn't expected to respond as the situation doesn't qualify as a natural disaster — though he feels it amounts to much the same thing from the residents' point of view.

"A development to them is a disaster," he said. "It's like a scheduled tornado."

Lana Bowman, who said she has lived in the trailer court off and on for about 13 years, described her neighborhood as a close-knit community where children can play in relative safety — the entrance to the trailer court is just off U.S. Highway 71 and directly across from the main entrance to Arnolds Park Amusement Park. She too is unsure where she'll go when Midwest Partners cancels her lease next month, and she's not sure how she'll afford the move.

"I feel like, I don't have money so they're going to push us out so they can build more condos here," Bowman said.

Comstock expressed similar thoughts and said she feels more condo units in the Lakes Area will exacerbate the lack of affordable housing in the broader community — some of the condo units to the east of the trailer court are on the market for $449,000 to $479,000 and are listed as less than 2,000 square feet.

"They cater to all the people that come in here that only want a summer home," Comstock said of recent residential developments in the area. "What about all the people that live here and work here year-round?"

She went on to say she and several other residents of the trailer park are on government assistance programs, such as disability and Social Security, and can't afford to relocate on their fixed incomes. Comstock said she herself worked for 20 years at a local manufacturing plant in Spirit Lake and largely depleted her savings when she purchased her trailer in pursuit of affordable housing and rent — she said she goes without luxuries like TV and internet service.

Tech said the situation has given many residents a sense of instability since the May notices.

"When you're on a fixed income, you're already stressed — you're already depressed," he said. "And now you pour fuel on the fire."

The 73-year-old said he and his wife live in the trailer court with their adopted grandchildren and planned to live out their retirement years there.

"We're going to be OK," Tech said. "We're going to be able to move our trailer. It's going to cost us money, but these guys that are on disability or social security — I'd be sick."

Midwest Partners provided a list of 37 suggested locations to which the residents of Okoboji Trailer Park and Storage could potentially relocate.

Comstock called the list a joke, indicating many trailer courts won't accept older-model trailer homes like theirs and other options on the list aren't viable solutions.

The list provided to the tenants includes four local state parks — Elinor Bedell State Park, Emerson Bay State Park, Marble Beach State Park and Gull Point State Park. Tim Richey, a state park manager with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' Gull Point Complex, said it might be possible for the displaced residents to rent space at the campgrounds if their full-sized mobile homes fit on a standard camp pad, but he pointed out visitors can't stay in any state campground in Iowa for more than 14 consecutive days. In addition, he said the campgrounds are largely shut down in the winter — snow is generally not cleared during the off season and the utilities, save for electricity, are turned off.

Some of the other locations on Midwest Partners' list, such as Cutty's Okoboji Resort west of Spirit Lake and The Ranch RV Park in Okoboji, aren't able to accommodate full-sized trailer homes, according to staff members there. Officials at Cutty's also noted their campground rentals are membership based, making the chances of an available slot this season even slimmer.

Bowman said she was given a $6,000 estimate for moving her trailer home — another $10,000 if she wants to bring the attached addition. Bowman said she has put several thousand dollars into the trailer home's floors, drywall and ceiling, but now she and others will likely have to downsize in a hurry, potentially selling her grandmother's table and her father's camper as well as find new homes for her two birds. Similarly, Comstock said she could potentially sell appliances like her washer, dryer and stove, but she expects they'll be a proverbial drop in the bucket compared to the overall expense of moving her trailer home. She too may have to part with her grandmother's dish set and her two cats.

"Most places won't even allow you to have one pet, let alone two," Comstock said. "There's nothing I can do. I don't have a choice. It's not that I want to."

Bowman said she's looked into assisted living homes, but she's reluctant to go that route. She doubts her family will be able to visit her as often in a smaller space — a situation she expects will add to her depression.

"If you have a direction, at least you have a light at the end of the tunnel but, if you don't know where you're going to go, what you're going to do, how much you can live with, it's just like your mind spins," Bowman said.

Another piece of the puzzle for the residents is the added cost of potentially leaving their mobile homes behind. Midwest Partners' notices informed the residents any costs associated with removing property from the lots will be billed directly to them and potentially withheld from their deposits.

Comstock said she had halted automatic rent payments to Midwest Partners as of an early June interview. She questioned what more the company could do to her in light of the upcoming lease cancellation.

"I have no savings anymore," she said. "I have nothing, except when I get my disability check, and I can't take it out of that. I don't have Social Security that they can garnish."

Bowman said she was still paying her rent in hopes of avoiding eviction before Aug. 4. She had received an automated message from Midwest Partners on May 22, informing her the company had not received her rent payment for that month and informing her an additional notice to begin terminating the rental agreement could be filed if rent wasn't received by May 27.

Some in the trailer court have considered retaining an attorney to represent them in the matter and see what can be done from a legal standpoint, but legal services also come at an added cost. Tech said he's looked into the law a bit himself and, while some states require property owners to financially assist tenants with relocating in similar circumstances, he said he's found no such requirement under Iowa law.

However, Tech feels it would be the right thing for the new landowners to do — whether they're legally required to do so or not.

"They just look at this as a trailer," he said. "We look at this as our home."