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ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ were tired and stressed and confused.

On the afternoon of Jan. 25, the city of Arnold posted a red sign on the door of their home, in the Ozark Hills Mobile Home Park. It said the building was “unfit for human occupancy.� It was late Friday afternoon. After a flurry of phone calls, Jhon and Alicia were led to believe they’d be arrested if they didn’t get out of the house.

If you’ve been in the Rios home, you’d know how ridiculous the sign is. The home is clean. It has new drywall, carpeting and furniture. The outside has new blue siding and a nice car port and deck.

The sign said it was “unlawful� for anybody to be in the home. Why?

Jhon and Alicia are stuck in the middle of a battle between their landlord and the city of Arnold, in Jefferson County. For years, the city has wanted the landlord, Rob Rosenfeld, and other mobile home parks to close.

There have been numerous court battles, at least two of which are ongoing. The city has passed ordinances making it next to impossible for owners to modernize their mobile homes or for park owners to bring in larger, newer manufactured homes.

Last year, I wrote about the Rios’ battle with Arnold. After the couple fixed up their home, the city cited them for not having permits. When Jhon went to the city to get permits, he was told he couldn’t get them because he was planning to do too much work to the home. Back and forth it went. An “unfit� sign was posted on the door at one point.

After I wrote about the dispute, Rios, an American citizen who came to the U.S. from Colombia in 1989, filed a housing discrimination complaint with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights. The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is investigating.

So why did the city re-post a notice on the home Friday, amid the investigation?

That’s not clear. Rosenfeld called me Friday and told me the city was threatening to arrest John and Alicia if they stayed in the home. He paid for their hotel costs over the weekend.

On Monday, when I asked Arnold City Administrator Bryan Richison why the city kicked out the couple, he said it wasn’t true that they weren’t allowed in their home.

“The city is cooperating with the HUD investigation,� Richison emailed me. “All enforcement actions have been paused until the investigation is resolved.�

When I asked for clarity about the Friday afternoon posting at the Rios house, he offered little detail.

“At the direction of the City Attorney we reposted the notice that the structure has been declared uninhabitable,� he emailed. “Besides reposting the notice, no other action was taken by the City due to the ongoing HUD investigation.�

Rosenfeld’s attorney got involved. So did Rios’ attorney from the discrimination complaint. By Tuesday night, after a flurry of phone calls among lawyers, the city had backed down and the couple was allowed back into the home.

“They’re just trying to make the Rios’ miserable,� Rosenfeld says.

A similar argument is being made in a lawsuit filed last year against Arnold by another mobile home park owner, James Zhang, and two of his residents. In that case, the owner and residents argue that after a bug infestation caused by heavy rain, the city posted “unfit� signs without giving anyone time to fix the problem.

“The rental properties are not in a ‘dangerous condition’ as the problems identified in the Notice are quickly resolvable,� the lawsuit alleges.

The city continues to deny it is biased against mobile homes or is trying to drive them out. But it’s hard to square that with the experiences of the Rios family and mobile-home park owners trying to serve mostly low-income clients.

“This is how they operate in Arnold,� Rosenfeld says. “This is how they do business.�