Treading where angels fear to go, a columnist for the Press-Enterprise in Inland Southern California wades into the swamp of HOA racism. He ponders whether a Sun City HOA there is racist, because it wouldn’t allow the NAACP to use its meeting house.
Certainly, racism is an oft-documented problem in American HOAs. There are too many such cases to even count. And subtle racism is even harder to measure. But many HOAs across the country have either no minorities at all, or percentages as small as one or two percent. While that’s no way to measure racial divides, it can make one pause and reflect.
This is hilarious! A Homeowners Association in Debary, Florida, refuses to let homeowners post political signs in their front yards. As we all know by now, the right to free speech in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights is not recognized by the American Homeowners Association movement.
Now, homeowners throughout the neighborhood are placing empty chairs in their yards where they could have placed their political signs. It’s an obvious reference to Clint Eastwood’s empty chair speech at the Republican National Convention.
Presumably, Republicans and Democrats in Debary ought to be concerned about their lack of access to free speech rights.
The Bank of America lawsuit against dozens of Nevada Homeowners Associations chugs onward. Earlier this Fall, B of A filed a federal lawsuit claiming that HOAs were illegally charging excessive collection fees and arbitrary fines against homeowners who committed minor infractions of HOA rules and covenants.
In one such case, a family in North Las Vegas moved out of their home and attempted to short sell it through the Bank of America. But the HOA in question decided the home in question had too many pine needles and weeds on the property, and they filed a lien against the home. Although the initial fine was only a few hundred dollars, the HOA dramatically escalated its fines and costs to more than $16,500. That made the home virtually unsaleable.
