Residents of the former S&W Trailer Park in Lake Point aren’t happy.
The new owner of the Lake Point Trailer Park has raised their monthly rent for a trailer pad from $150 per month to $250 per month.
“I’ve lived here for 15 years,” said Ray Ingledue. “My rent was $125 for a long time. Then last year when the new owners bought the park, it went up to $150. Last month, I got a letter telling me it was going up another $100 starting in March.”
Chris Robinson, managing partner and CEO for Saddleback Partners, LLC, the new owner of the trailer park, confirmed the $100 per month increase.
“You’ll find that $150 a month is an outlier on the low end for rent in a trailer park in Utah,” he said. “I’ve made some improvements and spent a lot of money on the park. I just want the park to cover its expenses. If it loses money the only other option is to close it.”
Many of the people who live in the trailer park are on a low, fixed income, according to Ingledue.
“I can get by with the $100 a month raise in rent,” he said. “But for others, this will make them homeless, or they will have to choose between paying rent or eating, or paying for medication they need.”
The park is more than just a place to live, according to Ingledue.
“Most of the people that live here have been here for years.” he said. “We know each other. This place is more than just a trailer park, we’re a family.”
Cheryl Kopec, 61, whose husband passed away two years ago, has lived in the same trailer home in the park for more than 20 years and raised four daughters there.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she said. “If I had family that could take me in, I wouldn’t be here.”
To pay the extra $100 in rent, Kopec said she will give up her car.
“If I don’t have the car payments, I can pay the rent,” she said. “Turning the car back in may wreck my credit, but I don’t have another choice. I have an old truck I can drive to work in Tooele. I hope it runs. I can’t afford to fix it.”
Saddleback Partners purchased the S&W Trailer Park from the family of Val Stearns effective Oct. 1, 2014.
After Saddleback bought the park, some residents’ rent went from $125 to $150 per month.
The $100 a month increase, effective in March 2016, is a 40-percent increase.
Madge Bowlin, Stearns’ daughter, managed the trailer park for 17 years until it was sold to Saddleback. She told the Transcript Bulletin in a November 2014 interview that while under her father’s ownership, S&W intentionally became home to many low-income families.
“My dad had been poor and knew what it was like,” she said. “He was here for the people, not the money.”
Robinson said his improvements have included resurfacing the roads, changing over from a small local well to the Oquirrh Mountain Water Company — which is operated by Saddleback Partners — and a general cleanup of the property.
Lake Point Trailer Park also has a new sign and new mailboxes.
“I’ve also spent a lot of money in legal fees to evict drug dealers and others involved in illegal activity from the park,” he said.
Ingledue is concerned for his neighbors.
“These trailers are old. If people leave they can’t take them with them,” he said. “He’s going to make a lot of these people homeless.”
Saddleback Partners, or other companies managed by Robinson, own land to the north, west and east of the trailer park.
As CEO of the Ensign Group that owns 61,000 acres in Skull Valley, Robinson represents Tooele County’s largest private landowner.
He also is the president, manager, or general partner of the Uintah Land Company, the Beaver Creek Company, Salt Pointe Company, and the Arimo Company.
The Arimo Company, along with the Ensign Group, owns 1,800 acres north of Grantsville and 5,000 acres in Lake Point, including Saddleback and the Salt Pointe Commercial Center where Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers is located.
Robinson lives in Summit County and serves on the Summit County Council.