It’s amazing to discover how few people know that Homeowners Associations routinely discriminate against the handicapped. Despite federal law against such discrimination, HOAs generally do what they dang well please. Once in a rare while HUD will file a lawsuit. Invariably that means a huge fine assessed against every member of the neighborhood. You can be a completely innocent homeowner and suddenly find tens of thousands of dollars assessed against your home because some idiot on the board did something stupid.
This story is not about HOA discrimination, just the nastiness that routinely happens around families with disabled children.
Fountain is a small town on the outskirts of Colorado Springs. A family there has a 16 year old daughter with Cerebral Palsy. The City of Fountain gave them a permit to build a wheelchair ramp to their front door, but the neighbors are outraged. They say the wheelchair ramp could destroy their property values. The family says the next-door neighbors are threatening to sue.
If this actually was a Homeowners Association, the couple with the handicapped child would already be out on the street. It’s happened before.
It really has….happened before.
I’m so glad these parents went to the media with this story, but I’m sorry the names of the neighbors were not published.
I have good friends with a child with CP. Life is not easy and never has been since the child was born. There is no option but to have a wheelchair. Their entire house had to be remodeled and they have a ramp that goes out into their garage. Friends don’t call these folks to socialize. The cost of caregivers is expensive. They can’t take vacations and visit places that most all of us can see. They have a van with a ramp. They are wonderful people and so are their children.
In one second, any one of us could have an accident or illness that would put us in the exact same position of what these families face. No human being is exempt from this possibility.
I would gladly live around neighbors with ramps because I’d know one thing for sure…people who are caring for those who can’t care for themselves are the most compassionate and kind people I know. Those are the neighbors I want because I’ve had enough of these hate-filled selfish neighbors that are constantly worried about their property values. A person who has humanitarian values is far more important to me than a property with values!
Plus, I don’t think the ramps have any effect whatsoever on the property values. If they do, I want to see the studies that prove it!