QuickTake:

An adult foster home operator in rural Lane County is suing the county over its requirements for her home. The dispute started in 2024 when the operator first sought a permit for a building addition.

A Lane County foster home operator is suing Lane County, alleging the county is violating federal disability law with its requirements for her to operate her home for disabled adults. 

Halina Myers filed the federal lawsuit June 17 in U.S. District Court in Eugene. Myers alleges the county’s requirements for her adult foster home are discriminatory and would not be required for people without disabilities living at the house. Myers’ adult foster home serves four adults with disabilities in rural Deadwood, an unincorporated community about 57 miles west of Eugene off Oregon Highway 36.

In 2023, Myers moved her adult foster home operation from Corvallis to the current Lane County house, living there with four disabled adults in need of residential care. Myers previously had operated in Corvallis for about 13 years. 

Myers’ dispute with the county started in August 2024, when she applied for a building permit to build an addition to her house. A 1998 land use decision confirmed the dwelling was lawful and could be repaired, replaced or altered, the lawsuit said. 

County officials, however, asked her to record a real property covenant to get the building permit approved, an arrangement that would have limited her rights to seek legal relief from any injuries related to farming and forestry practices, the lawsuit said.

After Myers declined to sign the covenant, the county allegedly put the permit on a “land use hold,” and informed her she was “red-flagged” in the county’s land management database to block future permits unless she signed the covenant. 

The county also declined to offer her a due process hearing and told her to resubmit the permit under a different application type that would require additional paperwork if she wanted a hearing or review, the lawsuit said. 

During those discussions, the county’s planning office said it became aware of the adult foster home on the property and told Myers she was violating building code and land use regulations, the lawsuit said. 

Adult foster homes are a form of housing that allows up to five adults to live together in a house with caregiver support. Operators get government funding to run the homes. 

In general, adult foster homes serve senior adults or adults with disabilities and operators receive government support. The model allows people to get care in houses in their communities, which may not have large residential facilities.

County officials told her that was a prohibited use and asked for the pending permit for the addition to be resubmitted as a commercial building permit, the lawsuit said. The county also requested she apply for a certificate of occupancy for the house and also comply with commercial building codes based on an alleged “change in use” from residential to institutional or commercial use, the lawsuit said. 

After Myers resisted those efforts, the county told her to submit a “reasonable accommodation” request under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act to obtain the land use approval needed for the adult foster home. 

The lawsuit contends that request also is discriminatory because people without disabilities living there would not be required to submit an accommodation request, the lawsuit said. 

“Here, Plaintiff’s AFH is a residential use,” the lawsuit states, using an acronym for adult foster home, “that, under applicable law, must be treated the same as any other single-family dwelling with a comparable number of unrelated occupants, and Plaintiff should not need a ‘reasonable accommodation’ simply to be allowed to use her lawfully established single-family dwelling as housing for persons with disabilities on the same terms as nondisabled persons.”

The county acknowledged to the plaintiff it has “no established process” for reasonable accommodation requests and asked the plaintiff to propose what that should be, the lawsuit said, adding this shows the requirement is “not part of a neutral, generally applicable policy.”

Before the dispute, in 2016 and 2020, the plaintiff had obtained building permits from Lane County for remodeling projects without any objection from the county about the lawful status of the dwelling and its use as a single-family residence, the lawsuit said.

The county has not yet responded in court, and Devon Ashbridge, a county spokesperson, said the county does not comment on pending litigation. 

Myers’ Eugene attorney, John Roberts, had no immediate comment when reached. 

The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the county’s actions violate her and the residents’ constitutional rights and are contrary to the federal Fair Housing Act and the ADA. 

The lawsuit also seeks an order blocking the county from putting a “land use hold” on Myers’ property and preventing the county from requiring her to submit commercial building permit applications and applying commercial code standards to her home due to her property’s use as an adult foster home.

Myers also wants a court order requiring the county to modify its policies and practices about the use of adult foster homes to comply with state and federal fair housing and disability laws. As part of that, the case seeks a requirement for the county to put procedures in place that prevent discrimination in the future for requests related to people with disabilities. 

The lawsuit also seeks damages of at least $500,000 for economic losses, increased development costs and other damages, and, separately up to $500,000 in damages for emotional distress, pain and suffering, humiliation and loss of enjoyment of life. 

In addition, the lawsuit seeks unspecified attorney fees.

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Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.