A grandmother in Oregon believes she is being unfairly targeted and harassed by her mobile home community’s new landlord because she is gay, an allegation that recently received some attention from the local news after vandals spray-painted the words “die dike” on the side of her home.
Melanie Powell tells KOIN6 that she’s been living as an openly gay woman in her Rainier mobile home park for 25 years without incident, and only recently felt discriminated against when a change in management gave her a new, aggressively homophobic landlord.
“I got my gay pride flag hanging out front,” she says. “I’ve kept my business inside my house. I don’t put it in people’s faces.”
But despite being a rather low-key and rule-abiding resident, Powell says new property manager Maureena Schmaing has issued her several absurd violation notices, which she lays out for reporter Chris Holmstrom in the report below. One of the violations is for “using a flashlight,” while another threatens her for “being outside after 10pm.”
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Among Powell’s several other notices are an order to repair her porch, her one-year-old roof, and to repaint her entire home. Concerned neighbors tell KOIN6 that they’ve received no such notices since Schmaing took over, and believe Powell is definitely being unfairly harassed due to her sexual orientation.
“I’m tired of being yelled at, screamed at, vulgar language, being accused of doing stuff we are not doing,” Powell added.
William Pierce, Powell’s neighbor, claims he’s intervened several times when Schmaing comes to Powell’s home to verbally assault her.
When confronted, Schmaing delivers a smugly assholish response to the allegations: “I’m a landlord. I follow the Manufacturing Housing Oregon Law, and I follow all the Title 10 Law with any park site I manage.”
But this story will most likely have a happy ending, as the report indicates overwhelming support coming from Powell’s neighbors. “It’s a great deal of support,” she said. “I don’t know what I would do without having all these people on my side.”
Dae
Listen, I have been to this mobile home park, it is a mess!! She is not the only one with rules and regulations violations (I am myself, a landlord) and one walk through that park I noted at least fifty violations with the upkeep of the mobile home lots alone! Half of the park was not paying rent at the time of my visit and I am sure they were evicted once the new managers got in office, and I can assure you that this tenant is not the only one with violations to date. Convenient for her that she is gay, because now she can take the blame off her not following the rules and regulations by playing the “gay card”. Look at how she took the time to note that she has violation notices AFTER someone painted her house, it was sick and rude of them to vandalize her home, but UNRELATED to the violation notices I can assure you. Landlords do not enjoy writing violations, it is a long process and a waste of a stamp unless it is a must to send it out.
Landlords get accused of this S**T all the time. Tenants do not want to follow the rules and regulations (even though they signed them and are now legally bound to them!) People do it all the time, they pull the race card, the religious beliefs card, the sexism card, anything they can to make them seem as if they are a victim so that way they can get around the issue and not have to abide the rules. Not just in landlord tenant relationships but in every aspect of life.
This landlord did not spray paint the house, and unless she comes out right and calls this women a slur to suggest that she is a homophobe, there is no proof that she is being harassed by her sexual orientation!!!!
For the record no this is not Maureena Shmaing writing this, but a bisexual landlord of a similar style of mobile home park.
Merv
Always be suspicious of anti-gay graffiti. Sometimes it’s real, but it’s also one of the most commonly faked hate crimes.
mikeg
@Dae: Sounds like you’re a bit biased in your response there Dae. If you’ve been in that park do you know specifically which unit is Melanie Powells and can you cite her specific violations? Being cited for using a flashlight and being outside after 10 pm sure sounds harassing. The fact that according to you everyone in this park was guilty of violations yet Ms. Powell is the only one getting violation notices seems harassing. Again, your bias is clearly showing when you talk about those poor Landlords getting unjustly accused by the fill in the blank card playing tenants. Has a landlord never abused their powers or let their personal feelings interfere in doing their duties properly? Sounds like Ms Powell has been living there openly for 25 years but the vandalism only happened recently, which coincides with the arrival of this new landlord. Is that coincidence? Maybe. Sure seems silly for you to insist that the landlord didn’t do it unless you have some proof to back up your statement.
Are you sure you’re not Maureena Shmaing?
michael mellor
Someone ought to look into Maureena Schmaing’s background.
Diana
Discrimination in Housing, Public Accommodations, Jury Service, Education and Real Estate Transactions.
State law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing or places of public accommodation, such as hotels, restaurants or other businesses. In all but a few circumstances, landlords, businesses and education institutions may not refuse to serve you or sell or rent to you because of your sexual orientation or gender identity. Discrimination of on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is banned in U.S. Housing and Urban Development housing, which includes homes with Federal Housing Authority-backed loans and mortgages.