HUD: Caldwell RV Park discriminated against tenant with disabilities

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged the managers and owner of Caldwell’s Decoy RV Park — named in the charge as Danielle Nourse, Joy Nourse, Zidec, LLC and Decoy RV Park LLC — with discriminating against a tenant with disabilities.

The charge was filed Sept. 23, in response to a complaint originally filed more than four years ago. In it, it is alleged that Decoy RV Park’s managers and owner (the respondents) evicted a tenant because her new service dog exceeded the park’s 15-pound weight limit for dogs as pets.

“[Manager Joy Nourse] doesn’t allow bigger dogs in the park, service dog or not, they don’t want that liability of someone getting bit,” manager Danielle Nourse wrote in a text message to the tenant on April 6, 2020, according to the charge.

Nourse also texted the tenant to say that her rent would increase as a result of acquiring the service dog, the charge states. On April 26, 2020, the complainant provided Nourse with a letter from a medical provider vouching for the animal’s necessity.

After going back and forth with the tenant about the park’s policies on pets, and the tenant invoking the Fair Housing Act to assert exemption from said policies, Nourse terminated her tenancy in May 2020, to be effective June 1, according to the charge.

Under the Fair Housing Act, housing providers must make reasonable accommodations for tenants with disabilities. This includes making exceptions for assistance animals, regardless of a provider’s policies on pets.

“It can be [called] a service animal, an assistance animal or an emotional support animal,” said Zoe Olson, the executive director of the Intermountain Fair Housing Council, based in Boise. “No matter what language they use, if it is used for a person with a disability to ameliorate the effects of their disability, it is a service animal.”

Assistance animals do not need to be registered with a service animal organization or to be professionally trained. A tenant may be asked to show documentation proving the need for the animal from a qualified professional, like a doctor or social worker.

At the end of the charging document, HUD requested that an order be issued requiring the respondents to attend Fair Housing Act training and to “establish a non-discriminatory assistance animal policy and practice,” as well as calling for assessment of the maximum civil penalty for the alleged violation and for damages to be awarded.

The former tenant, who allegedly lived out of her car and with friends and family for a time after the eviction, may pursue the complaint through HUD’s Office of Administrative Law Judges or through the federal judicial system.

Decoy RV Park declined to comment on the charge, other than calling it a “frivolous lawsuit.” HUD also declined to comment beyond its initial press release.