A woman who bought a tiny home is taking legal action against her city, which threatened to fine her $1,000 a day if she continued living in it because the action left her unhoused.
Chasidy Decker of Meridian, Idaho, couldn’t afford to buy a house, so she opted for the 252-square-foot tiny home and arranged to put it on Robert Calacal’s property for $600 a month, according to the lawsuit.
A neighbor called the Meridian Police Department when the tiny home arrived on the property and asked whether living in it would be legal.
In May last year, a day after Decker moved in, a Meridian city-code-enforcement officer threatened both Decker and Calacal with criminal prosecution and fines of $1,000 a day unless she moved out, the Institute for Justice wrote in a blog post.
The institute, which files constitutional cases in state and federal courts, said in the blog post that Meridian’s city code permitted trailers and recreational vehicles to park in residential neighborhoods but did not permit living in them.
Decker and Calacal filed a lawsuit to challenge the city’s ban, bringing five claims as to why the restriction on tiny homes breached the Idaho constitution.
The judge presiding over the case at the time allowed four of the five claims to proceed, but blocked Decker from being allowed to live in her home during the legal proceedings.