HOA managers just don’t seem to get it. Handicapped people have a special privilege under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). It’s federal law. It can’t be monkeyed with.
Marcus Cook lived in the Jewell Lake Condominium Association west of Denver. He’s a disabled war veteran who needed a handicap parking spot so he could get his equipment out of his van.
Turns out management didn’t see it the same way and painted over his special parking area obliterating the part that contained the wider parking space. Management mocked him. Forrest Scruggs, of the property management company, Realty One, Inc, said “this crazy guy is asking for a parking space in the new fire lane.”
But the repainted parking lot was not in a fire lane. The Fire Department confirmed it.
War hero Marcus Cook, by the way, suffered a broken back while a paratrooper. He also has cancer and diabetes.
He did take his case up with Colorado’s Civil Rights Division.
Guess who won? The handicapped guy.
Guess who lost? Every family who lives at Jewell Lake Condominium Association in Lakewood.
Ward Lucas
Author of
Neighbors At War: The Creepy Case Against Your Homeowners Association
