After a year and a half of waiting, attorneys for both the city of Meridian and Chasidy Decker met in court to argue their sides of a case that concerns a city law that bars people from living in tiny homes on wheels.
At stake for Decker, she said, is her ability to stay in the Treasure Valley.
“Ultimately what scares me the most is if this doesn’t go in my favor, unfortunately I am going to be left with no other option than to leave,” Decker told the Idaho Statesman after the hearing. “I cannot afford the rental prices here. Idaho is going to force me out of Idaho.”
In 2022, Decker, a native Treasure Valley resident, was told by a Meridian Code Enforcement officer to leave her tiny home on wheels, which she owns. At the time, Decker was renting space next to a private residence to park the home, and didn’t realize that living in it — while paying rent to her landlord, who lived in the home next door, and utilities — was against Meridian law.
After Statesman wrote a story about Decker’s impending eviction , the case caught the eye of the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that says its goal is to end abuses of government power and secure people’s constitutional rights.