A Crown Point mobile home park accused of violating federal law by not allowing children to live there has agreed to stop its ban and to pay $130,000.
Gentle Manor Estates, at 1350 E. North St., reached a consent decree agreement with the federal government to settle a lawsuit filed in May against the mobile home park’s policy of not renting homes to families with children.
According to court records, the U.S. Department of Justice had two “testers” call Gentle Manor in September 2014 to see if it would lease homes to those with children. When a woman called saying she, her husband and their child wanted to lease a home, Gentle Manor told her they didn’t allow anyone younger than 40 to live there, including her child, records show.
Another tester, a man who said he would live by himself and was older than 40, was told he could lease a home.
Through the agreement, Gentle Manor promises to end this practice, including providing training on housing discrimination for employees, distributing a nondiscrimination policy to all tenants and keeping track of all prospective tenant inquiries.
The agreement also calls for Gentle Manor to pay $100,000, which will be given toward any victims, including $35,000 toward a woman identified as Lynne Camacho and her grandchildren. The mobile home park must advertise in local media to alert other possible victims of the settlement fund.
Gentle Manor also will pay a $30,000 civil penalty to the federal government.
John Townsend, the manager for Gentle Manor who was also named as a defendant and is part of the consent agreement, said Wednesday he had no comment on the case.
The consent decree must still be approved by a federal judge.
