The Virginian-Pilot
©
VIRGINIA BEACH
The Holiday Trav-L-Park was no "Eden" for Karen Smith and her daughter, according to a lawsuit filed in Circuit Court.
The campground is accused of having a policy that prohibits renting a campsite in a monthly residential section of the grounds, known as Eden, to anyone with a child. The attorney general's office, which filed the complaint on Smith's behalf, seeks an injunction to stop the alleged unlawful conduct and $20,000 in compensatory damages.
Phillip Upton, the manager of the roughly 100-acre campground off General Booth Boulevard, denied that Smith was forced to leave because of her child. He said the campground caters mostly to vacationers.
"Our business is a campground, and what Karen Smith would want us to be is a trailer park," Upton said. "Our business is the tourist business."
The state Fair Housing Office began looking into the allegations last year when Smith, who had moved to Holiday Trav-L-Park, complained that she was told she could not stay there for more than three weeks because her daughter was between 5 and 18.
According to the lawsuit, the campground enforced "children restrictions" that forbid prospective residents from living in Eden on a month-to-month basis if they had one or more children.
The attorney general's office contends that Smith and her daughter were denied fair housing based on their family status. The state would not comment further, citing pending litigation.
"We never had a problem before," said owner Virginia Bosher, who has run the campground for almost 35 years. "This is a shock."
Bosher said she first became aware that Smith wanted to stay longer than a month when the investigation began in November 2007.
Neither Bosher nor Upton would discuss any alleged policy on children. They pointed out Smith still lives in one of the campsites in Eden and explained that they made several arrangements for her to stay at the campground.
"There are two sides to the story," Bosher said. "We work hard to run a good establishment. We have a wonderful family campground."
Duane Bourne, (757) 222-5150, duane.bourne@pilotonline.com
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Holiday-Trav-L-Park and Latch Key Law
Latch-Key-Law:
The Upton and Bosher family run a very nice campground full of family orientated vacation activities on site and with all the surrounding Virginia Beach resort establishments. But they rent camp sites (a plot of ground with services) for vacationing families and have stick rules to protect not just themselves but the families and children they cater too. Very limited gate access to insure no unwanted persons roam grounds. 10MPH speed limit throughout to protect children and pedestrians, walking, riding bikes, skateboards, you name the toy and the vacationers use them there safely as possible. Children have curfews every night; they must be at their family camp site not roaming the grounds. Children need parental supervision in areas like pools, Dog Park, miniature gulf course and so on.
But the Upton and Bosher family do not own, rent, or maintain any of the tents, campers and RV the vacationers use, they are privet tents, campers or RV’s. The owners the ground have no keys, rights or responsibilities to inspect for cleanliness, fire protection, child safety. They have rules about dogs, animals and children on campgrounds un-attended by parent or guardian in
The lawsuit might be frivolous, but...
just because a person has, say $1K/mo to spend for rent doesn't mean they can easily rent a conventional managed property at that price. The credit checks and security deposits can make it difficult if not impossible for someone trying to get back on their feet, so they may be forced into some sort of pay-as-you-go accommodations like campgrounds or extended-stay motels. Fair housing laws should not apply to properties intended only for short-term stay, like campgrounds, and I don't think think the complaint should stand. The owners are mighty generous folks to keep accommodating this person in spite of her having an active complaint against them, and she's a mighty small person to file a complaint considering she has a place to stay with them and wasn't just dumped out on the street, which might give her some grounds to file. Like a previous poster said, she wants something for nothing, like maybe a free trailer or something.
What law?
This is an interesting story, but it raises more questions than it answers. I hope there is a follow-up. I will be interested to find out exactly what law(s) may have been violated, and how the Attorney General's office decided to make this enough of a priority to bring suit.
Two Americas
It is a sad state of affairs when families must turn to this type of arrangement for permanent housing. For those who think families can just go down to social services and get section 8 rental assistance it is nowhere near a reality.
Waiting lists are years long in all communities of HR and IF a family obtains a certiicate after a very long wait they will be lucky to find a landlord to rent to them.
Children and families are the fastest growing group in the homeless population, representing 40%.
Campgrounds are not to live in with Children
We are fulltime RVer's and retired military. We have seen children living in RV's in public campgrounds and military campgrounds. That is not right IMHO. All children need a bedroom of their own and I would think Social Services says so. Temporary for a month or so is one thing but as a permanent thing NO WAY. If anyone can afford to live in a campground by the month they should be able to find an apartment or make some other suitable living arrangements.
Don't Sue - Settle Now!
The family should seek help from local government or charities. Don't sue hard working people. A campground is no place to raise a family. It is challenging to run a small business at a profit these days. Who needs this type of legal cost?
we love this park!!
I live in Chesapeake, getting ready to visit the good folk's at the park in a couple of week's, and then again in May. Alway's been treated great, everyone bring's their kid's, golf cart's, motorcycles, toy hauler's, blow up ghost's, whatever we want. Security stop's by and complement's your site. Something going on all the time there. Can't wait to go during Neptune, and then again for Bike classic. Make your reservation's now!!!
Laws allow the discrimintation
Have you ever heard of 55 and older housing? Campgrounds are tourist destinations, not trailer parks.
more info needed
Clearly there isn't enough information in this story to give an opinion. I have no doubt there are 2 sides to this story. I think the age of the child would be significant. There are strict rules at the campground. Also I have to wonder, when the minimum to stay there is almost $700 a month, why she can't find an apartment. The statement, "they made several arrangements for her to stay at the campground" kind of tells me that they tried to work with her.
I don't know what type of establishment the Holiday Trav-L-Park is. The Fair Housing Law refers to "dwellings" and the definition of a dwelling is "any building, structure, or portion thereof, that is occupied as, or designated or intended for occupancy as, a residence by one or more families...". To me the key word is "residence". What does that have to do with a campground?
Camp Grounds might help those in need.
Since when do the Camp Grounds get to discriminate because you have a child? Unfortunately, there are situations where someone might be homeless and have no other place to go. Wouldn’t you feel better if a child had a place to sleep at night, instead of a park bench? Shame, shame on those without empathy for a child!!