Meridian said she couldn’t stay in her tiny home. She sued. What a judge just decided
Meridian tiny home resident Chasidy Decker and her former landlord will confront the city of Meridian in a trial that challenges a city law that prohibits tiny homes in city limits.
In February, the city’s lawyers argued before state District Judge Jason Scott in Boise that Decker’s case should not go to trial and that he should simply rule in favor of the city. Decker’s lawyers — with the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm in Washington, D.C., that says its goal is to end abuses of government power and secure people’s constitutional rights — argued for a similar ruling but in Decker’s favor.
On Friday, March 1, Scott issued a decision denying both parties’ requests. Scott said the case will proceed to trial, and both sides will argue their cases before a jury. The trial is scheduled to begin April 1.
In June 2022, Decker, a native Treasure Valley resident, had moved back to Idaho from Nevada, where she planned to live in her recently purchased tiny home on wheels. She rented space in Robert Calacal’s side yard, on Leisure Lane in northeast Meridian near Cherry Lane and Linder Road, where she parked her home and was living in it.
Just days after moving in, Decker was told by a Meridian code-enforcement officer that living in homes on wheels within city limits is against city law.
The Idaho Statesman wrote a story about Decker’s impending eviction, and the Institute for Justice began helping Decker build her case against the city.
Decker’s lawyers argue that the city ordinance is unconstitutional, and that government has no legitimate interest in banning tiny homes. Her case also says the city, through Code Enforcement Officer Anthony Negrete, retaliated against her by evicting her from her home the day after the Statesman published a story about it.
In his ruling, Scott said the two sides dispute whether the city’s law serves any health and safety purposes. Decker’s lawyers argue that the law exists simply to serve aesthetic purposes. The city disagrees.
“The court needs to better understand the nature of the city’s health and safety rationale in this context,” Scott wrote. “Because this is, at bottom, a reasonableness determination, and because the parties hotly dispute whether these ordinances truly advance any health and safety objectives, Counts 2 and 3 must be resolved in a trial setting.”
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