The house had belonged to his father who has since passed away, which I believe is why they left because they now live in his house.

This tenant will on purpose put belongings right in the path of the small amount of water just to raise hell.

You just can't deny them simply because they belong to a few protected classes.But, that doesn't mean that just because they are in a protected class, that they also can be a smoker or show up late, blah blah.You also have rights as a landlord.

If it's going to be longer than that, look at a local AirBnB.

I’m surprised there isn’t a health insurance broker that belongs to this site that can’t chime in.

And then it won't be long until you will be helping the new people that come along. 

What we usually do is reset to market when we have a vacancy - but for tenants that are tending to be long-term, we will have some smaller increases in there to cover increased property tax, insurance, and maintenance costs.

That will cover all of their belongings, food, ECT.

(The interest will belong to you.)

Make sure if you do this that the parent indicates they have no rights to live at and hold no belongings on the property.