Whitewater mobile home park to pay $100K settlement

Listen to this article

The owner and operators of a Whitewater mobile home park have agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a federal lawsuit alleging they had unlawfully excluded families with children from parts of their mobile home park.

The settlement, according to a Thursday news release, must still be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

The lawsuit, filed in October 2014, stemmed from a complaint filed to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by a woman and former resident who had tried to complete a sale of a home at the Twin Oaks Mobile Home Park in Whitewater.

According to the complaint, the owner and resident managers refused to approve the application for residency of  a woman with a two-year old child who planned to purchase the mobile home because it was in a part of the park where children were not allowed. A HUD investigation found that the owner and resident manager had violated the Fair Housing Act and referred the case to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, religion, national origin, color, disability and family status. More specifically, the act also makes it illegal to refuse to rent housing based on family status except when the housing is reserved for senior citizens.

The defendants in the case included the owner Merrill Eugene Gutzmer and Dennis Hansen, resident manager. After the lawsuit was filed, they approved the single mother’s application, and she was able to buy the mobile home.

Under the proposed settlement, Gutzmer and Hansen will pay $45,000 in damages and rent credits to the people who filed HUD complaints, $45,000 to others identified in a claims process and $10,000 in a civil penalty. The settlement also requires Gutzmer and Hansen to change their policies to let families with children live in all areas of the mobile home park. Follow @erikastrebel