She bought and set up her tiny Meridian home. Now she fears homelessness. This is why

Chasidy Decker wants to live a good life.

After paying a mortgage on a home in Boise’s North End, then later renting a three-bedroom apartment, Decker decided that she didn’t want her life to be about work anymore. She turned to the tiny home movement.

She custom-built her 252-square-foot tiny home from Tiny Idahomes, an Emmett builder, for $75,000. She finally found a place to park it in Idaho, next to a single-family home in Meridian. She moved it there last month.

But much to her dismay, a Meridian code-enforcement officer dropped by on her second day there and told her she had to move her home. She was given 10 days.

No other municipalities in Ada County allow tiny homes to be parked on residential properties, the Idaho Statesman previously reported. Boise started a pilot program for tiny homes this month, but it is limited. This leaves Decker with nowhere to go, she said, in a region facing a housing crisis and an increase in its homeless population.

Today, Decker’s gray-and-black home, with a maroon door, sits next to a home on Leisure Lane in Meridian, near Cherry Lane and Linder Road. Decker signed a lease with the property owners for a year to hook up to their water, sewer and electricity and park next to their home.

Decker’s home has two lofts, a jacuzzi bathtub, and a washer and dryer.

“People really don’t need more than what I have — I don’t feel like I go without,” Decker said, while giving a tour of her small home.

Decker first got hooked on the tiny home movement four years ago when she realized she was mostly using one corner of her three-bedroom apartment.

“I worked a corporate job, I owned a home in the North End, and while I was doing it I thought, ‘This is what everyone says you’re supposed to do,’” Decker said. “But it wasn’t for me. I don’t want to just work in order to live.”

Before renting the space in Meridian, Decker stored her tiny home at a lot in Twin Falls. She had been living in Reno after a death in her family but had been trying to move back to the Boise area ever since stabilizing things with her family.

Decker, her boyfriend, dog and cat were all moved into their new home in Meridian before they got the news that they couldn’t stay.

Decker’s landlords purchased the single-family home in mid-May. They believed they lived in unincorporated Ada County, and since they didn’t have a covenants, conditions and restrictions declaration that is often required in single-family homes with homeowner’s associations, they believed they could rent their property to Decker for her tiny home to make some extra money.

Decker pays $600 for the space. She is between jobs, having worked as a cage cashier at a casino in Reno before moving back to Idaho. She said the death in her family brought some additional money, so she could buy the tiny home outright.

But Meridian had annexed Decker’s host home into the city, and the city code has strict guidelines around tiny homes.

Decker said most people in her neighborhood were excited about her tiny home and asked about it when they walked or drove by, but she thinks one of her neighbors likely reported her to the city.

The code enforcement officer gave Decker just 10 days to move. Ten days is the typical time frame code enforcement gives people to correct first violations, a city spokesperson told the Statesman.

Decker worried that the city’s move to effectively evict her would leave her homeless.

Decker said code enforcement told her she could not have her tiny home in the location at all. In email correspondence with the Statesman, the city initially said secondary homes were against the law in Meridian. But city spokesperson Stephany Galbreaith corrected that later to say a residential property can have a secondary dwelling unit that is an accessory to the main home.

The owner of the home must live on the site, and the secondary unit may not exceed 700 square feet, may not have more than one bedroom, and must match the primary home in design.

“Tiny homes are allowed,but like every residence in the city, they must comply with the International Residential Code, must be placed on a foundation, and must be connected to city water and sewer, among other requirements,” Galbreaith said in the email.

Decker said code enforcement did not give her the option to move the tiny home onto a foundation. She said the homeowners would be happy to put a pad in under her home.

Galbreaith said the city can’t talk about individual code enforcement cases.

10 days is too little time, Decker says

“I just need more than 10 days because if not, I’m homeless,” Decker said, speaking to the Idaho Statesman in front of her home. “I don’t know where I’m going to put my tiny home and I have no idea where I’m gonna go.”

In an email provided to the Statesman, Emily Kane, deputy city attorney, suggested Decker could move her home into an RV park. Previous Statesman reporting found a majority of RV parks in the Treasure Valley are full and many have years long wait lists.

Decker said she looked into RV parks and they were all full and most did not accept tiny homes.

Jason Jones, a developer with Wee Boise, a Garden City development company that specializes in modular homes and buildings, is assisting Garden City with a code amendment to allow tiny homes on single properties. Jones said “there is almost no chance she can find a place to put it in 10 days.”

Kane said in an email that code enforcement could give Decker an extension.

When asked if the city could assist Decker in other ways given the housing affordability crisis in the Treasure Valley, Galbreaith emailed a statement that Mayor Robert Simison gave in his State of the City address about exploring solutions.

“We don’t have the answers yet, but we do know we have some existing development tools available, and we are looking to others as well,” Simison said.

Decker gawked at what she sees is the city’s lack of caring in her situation.

“We have this homeless issue, yet (the city is) willing to be like, ‘well, whatever, I guess you’re going to be added to the homeless population,” Decker said.

City of Boise tiny home pilot program

Last summer, the city of Boise held a public viewing of a tiny home at Terry Day Park, off Federal Way in southeast Boise, ahead of its plans to start its pilot program. The Statesman reported that the viewing attracted around 80 people, who said they would join a city program to allow tiny homes on their property.

“What stood out most from that experience was just the outpouring of community support and excitement,” said Kyle Patterson, a data analyst with the city of Boise, at the time.

The city teamed up with LEAP Housing, an affordable housing developer, to select 16-18 households to participate. Up to six tiny homes could be chosen to take part in the program, according to LEAP’s website.

Jones said Garden City is working through a draft of code to allow tiny homes on single-family dwelling unit property, but it isn’t “there” yet, he said.

“This is really something that should be allowed; why wouldn’t we allow this?” Jones said.

Galbreaith said Meridian is not considering changing its zoning code about tiny homes.

Decker said she had not heard anything from the city about an extension by Wednesday afternoon, but suspected she would hear by the end of the week. Friday is the 10-day mark.

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