Chasidy Decker has been homeless for 15 days, despite owning a tiny home in Meridian.

The city of Meridian effectively evicted her from her tiny home on Aug. 1, because city code restricts the size and use of secondary homes. Now, sleeping on a friend’s couch, Decker is preparing to sue the city, claiming it violated her private property rights and retaliated against her after the Idaho Statesman published its June 14 article on Decker’s tiny home and battle with Meridian Code Enforcement.

The Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that says it opposes government overreach, says it chose to represent Decker after reading the Statesman article. According to the lawsuit, Decker’s lawyers plan to challenge Meridian’s law that bans the use of mobile tiny homes as a residence or living quarters outside of an RV park.

Bill Nary, city attorney for Meridian, said in an email that the city cannot comment on pending litigation and that the case is a Code Enforcement matter.

The Institute for Justice said it plans to sue Tuesday in state District Court in Boise. Robert Calacal, the homeowner who rented Decker the space, is Decker’s co-plaintiff.

Decker moved her 252-square-foot “tiny,” her shorthand for tiny home, to Calacal’s property on Leisure Lane near Cherry Lane and and Linder Road, in May. The home is on wheels and must be pulled by a vehicle to move it.

She lived there for two days before Code Enforcement Officer Anthony Negrete came by the property to tell her she could not live in the home. He gave her 10 days to leave.

After the Statesman’s story, Decker said, the city extended her deadline until Aug. 1. But she still could find no spot in any RV parks or any other property to legally move her home to. Decker resorted to couch surfing with friends. The home is still on Calacal’s property.

“I own a home and I am homeless,” Decker said, by phone. “That is insane to me.”



The lawsuit claims the Meridian code that bans living in a tiny home as a primary residence on a private property violates the Idaho Constitution, which requires that laws infringing on property rights have a direct and substantial relation to legitimate government interests.

The lawsuit says the Meridian ordinance is not supported by a legitimate government interest. It claims the ordinance does not promote health and safety and does not preserve the character or aesthetics of a neighborhood, because it prohibits people from living in tiny homes but not from parking them.

“The ordinance does not serve any other legitimate purpose justifying the use of the state’s police power,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also claims the Meridian ordinance prohibits Calacal from using his private property in the “reasonable, safe and ordinary way he expected to use it when he purchased it.”

After the Statesman’s article was published, Negrete visited Decker and Calacal’s property three more times and cited them both for parking violations and vehicle registration problems, the lawsuit said. Decker and Calacal believed these citations were because of their involvement in the Statesman story, the lawsuit said.

Negrete also confronted Decker in the early morning Aug. 1, when she was walking her dog around her tiny home, Decker and her lawyers said. According to Decker, Negrete told her that he was angry about the story and how it portrayed him. Decker said she was in tears after the conversation.

The lawsuit claims Negrete violated Decker’s and Calacal’s constitutional right to free speech by retaliating against them after the story.

“In America and in Idaho, if freedom of speech means anything at all, it means that you can speak out when you feel that the government has treated you unfairly,” Bob Belden, an Institute for Justice attorney, told the Statesman by phone. “And that is exactly what Chasidy did.”

Decker and Calacal’s lawyers believe they were targeted for the code violations because of their out-of-state license plates and because Calacal lives in California.

“There are RVs, tiny homes, broken-down cars, mobile homes, large shipping containers, mechanical equipment, and debris on the yards of other properties on Leisure Lane,” the lawsuit said. “Some of the RVs, tiny homes, and other similar structures are plugged into RV hookups on other properties on Leisure Lane.”

Decker said she believes someone is living in a tiny home parked on a residence just up the street from Calacal’s.

“When Chasidy asked Officer Negrete why she has to abide by the code, while other residents in the neighborhood are not required to abide by the code, he told her that other residents have lived in the neighborhood for a long time, while she and Robert just moved there from out-of-state,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit said the city took a position that the other residents in the neighborhood were “grandfathered in” to their nonconforming use. Decker’s lawyers claim that that position is incorrect, because the people living there would have to have lived there since before 1978 in order to be grandfathered into the previous code. 1978 was when the properties were annexed into the city from Ada County.

Boise is in the midst of a housing crisis, with homes in short supply and prices skyrocketing. Rents have increased by more than 35% since March 2020, making the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment over $1,000 a month, according to Apartment List.

For Belden and Decker, the lawsuit is about more than just one woman: It is about ensuring that Idahoans have a place to live.

“When you sort of take a look at this from a 30,000-foot level, everybody in America and everybody in Idaho needs a place to live,” Belden said. “And Chasidy already owns a perfectly safe place to live, but the city of Meridian would rather see her be homeless than live in it.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/meridian-tiny-home-owner-now-100000399.html

Private property doesn’t exist as long as you have to pay property tax

But if she had a tent on a city street no code enforcment officer would care.  Fucking clown world.

This is about to happen in Austin. There is a mobile home park that was recently purchased and the developers want all the mobile homes gone in the next few months. Some of them are 20 years old and will cost more to move than they are worth.

Yes. Property tax is a scam. The government own ALL property. You just rent it.

I suspect this is more of an anti California thing, rather than an anti tiny home thing.

But will still probably bite the county guy in the junk.

Need pics of said chick to determine guilty or not guilty.

Code enforcement is just trying to keep the commies from ruining their state.

The city has the right to make and enforce codes.

But that doesn't mean it should.

Rich and powerful people in that town who own a lot of rentals are not going to be favorable to anything that avoids people having to pay higher and higher rents.

" codes " are the devil !

Countless counties and municipalities across the county really need to update their codes/ordinances  in reference to tiny homes.  The timy home concept has really gained a lot of steam the last 5 years, yet codes have not been updated to reflect this change.

How does she get up to the loft above the bathroom?

So, you can't park trailers on someone else's lot and live in them. People would be turning their home properties into mobile home parks. If they weren't doing it for a business, I could see a completely valid argument. But this is a business for them.

And targeting Californians that have destroyed Idaho is fine. They went there as missionaries and have destroyed the state. This lady is claiming residency in CA so she isn't paying income tax in ID or paying them anything, but says she now has no place to live? Something is off.

And this setback looks good.

North Las Vegas just got done removing one illegally placed "tiny home community" that had no running water, electricity, sewer, etc.

These places end up becoming open air drug markets and a blight on whatever community they're placed next to.

250ft² is a storage shed not a home.

The plaintiff is a Californicator leftist. Here’s hoping she leaves my fair State homeless and penniless.

Oh well if that's the case then, not only is it a good eviction they should burn the house down. Run those Communists back to their home state

Maybe got a case.  The grandfathering sounds bogus.  City May be discriminating.  Certainly are making a “little house” story bigger.

@midcap

Kind of always been surprised that the Continentals didn't encode allodial title into the Constitution as the default status of private land.

Most zoning allows for an "accessory dwelling unit" (often called an ADU) up to 600 sq. ft. to be placed on a property that already has a primary home IF the setbacks and other conditions are met.  I'm surprised these haven't become more popular.

Cities suck.

Government doesn't have rights. People have rights.

Government has powers, which are explicitly delegated to it by the People.

Meridian, just an extension of Boise.
Boise, just an extension of California, Portland, Seattle, etc.

They have to be approved beforehand here. You can't just roll up like Christmas Vacation expecting to stay forever.
The health department gets up your ass about the septic or sewer tie in and ensuring your septic field is sufficiently sized.

Kharn

Needs more squatters in their rentals.

I'm torn on this. On hand, it needs to be constructed safely and able to be egressed quickly in the event of an emergency. On the other hand, she ain't hurting anyone but the tax collector. Fuck off. On the third hand, if it's set up with solar and she's not tapped into the grid, isn't that the green design they want?

Anyway, if she ain't hurting no one but their feelings, leave her alone.

To me it is a great case.

City Sounds more like an HOA over a Public Interest Org.

Whatever you dont like, how is making a law abiding person, seems productive, tax payer, homeless?
I dont think the punishment is anywhere NEAR whatever the issue is.

I dont see any problem with this.

Trailers are taxed as personal property in some states.

Tiny home woman is native Idahoan. Moved to Reno Nevada in 2019 to help her mom after her grandfather died then moved back.

Property owner is the Californicator.

That’s what I gathered from the article. Cities have codes and enforcement is what they live for. Move to the woods if you don’t like it.

I think it is required to be way bigger than 600 sq feet here, something like 1000 sq ft.

Curious if they would approve a composting toilet or something similar.

How is that similar to the OP?

IJ has a high batting average, I think they'll win.

Fuck commies.

But also, fuck the government.


Let them fight

Click bait article. She's not Homeless she owns a home . Just doesn't own any land to put it on

I hadn't heard about that... but I wonder if anyone in the area has done like the OP post did - let someone park a "tiny house" in their back yard or whatever.

Sounds like bullshit from the government there. The new people can't do what everyone else around them is doing? And what interest does the government have in preventing a tiny house from being on dude's property? I hope the .gov gets fair dinkum FUCKED in this suit.

cant, Feds own it all or the States.....

No composting toilet here, it must meet all applicable codes as if it were a house.
I looked into an "attached accessory dwelling unit" (ie, an in-law suite) when my in-laws moved closer, and the ADU regs were obviously written with a sense of "sure, it's possible, in theory, to get approval without a lawyer" to keep out the weirdos and stop the poors from creating unwanted trailer parks. A person with money getting their pool house approved wouldn't have those problems.

Declaring it an attached ADU would have made financing easier (ie, no questions about why they're contributing to the loan, a contract between us for their contributions, etc) than me building an addition with a HELOC, but they bought their own place.

Kharn

People have to move their trailers...

It's not a tiny home, it's a camper.

I give her two-fiddy for it.  I have to gut the interior to make it a workshop.

Fucked up clown world isn't it?

This

I 210 support both the property owner and the "tiny home woman."  This is going to royally bite Meridian in the ass. For the record, I live in McCall. I have met more "born and raised Idahoans" who far and away supersede most batshit crazy progressives than Californians by a loooong country mile. Hell, some of the most staunch conservatives I know in Idaho are ..from CA.

I lived in tiny house, they were called park model trailers before the tv shows. I lived in it for 2 years and then built a house on my property, but I live on acreage with zero restrictions.

The one is Austin is park where people have been living and renting for years, but the real estate is much more valuable if it's developed into apartments or something else.

No they don’t. Especially in northern states.

HUD & dwelling code standards came about for reasons, many of them very good.

“Tiny Homes” occupy an area devoid of HUD regulation due to HUD only regulating structures over 8.5” wide.

They are “Homes” in name only. Many municipalities use the term “Dwelling”, which a shitty tiny home comes no where near meeting, almost all of them minimum square footage.

I could go on, but there really is no point. They are a grifter crutch & have absolutely no business being used as a dwelling.

Now, if being used as as a recreational vehicle that may be another thing, but the whole movement of tiny homes refused to join the RVIA so as to be considered legally as a travel trailer, which they more closely align, so fuck them. They made their bed now reap the shit storm.