Last month, the Evergreens at Smith Run senior living facility in Fredericksburg, Va. threatened to evict Kenneth and Liv Hauge for hosting a Bible study in their residence. This followed a long train of religious harassment, culminating in a new policy that forbids any religious events in a common area and a notice that if Ken Hauge (a part-time pastor) continued to host a Bible study, he and his wife would be thrown onto the street.
On Thursday, First Liberty Institute sent a demand letter threatening legal action unless the facility rescind the anti-religious policy and the threat to evict the elderly couple. These actions are so far outside the bounds of acceptable housing practices, the facility is likely to comply.
“A management company is threatening two 80-year-old residents with eviction to stop residents from meeting together to discuss their faith,” Jeremy Dys, deputy general counsel for First Liberty, told PJ Media. “Evergreens management would rather make the Hauges homeless than allow them to study the Bible in their private residence with their friends.”
“No one should be evicted from their home because they led a Bible study there,” Dys declared. He suggested that “violations of federal fair housing laws are very serious,” and warned that “if those violations are not appropriately addressed, we may have no other choice than to apply the law to them in federal court.”
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