There’s a fascinating article in the Washington Post about how the foreclosure crisis is leading to increased segregation in American neighborhoods. The article is worth reading, even though it doesn’t directly target Homeowners Associations.
There are interesting implications, though. The big irony is that the modern homeowner association movement started in 1964 shortly after the Civil Rights Act was passed. White homeowners and developers recoiled at the thought of minorities moving into white neighborhoods and made sure subtle racial controls were woven into the HOA system.
The recent mortgage crisis hit HOAs especially hard with foreclosures being done both by mortgage companies and HOA boards. And there’s no question that many ‘private governments’ have used their ‘secret rules and powers’ to come down harshly on minorities. Keep that in mind as you read the Washington Post story, linked below.
David Evans, guitarist in the rock band U2, owns some view acreage overlooking Malibu. He’s now into his 9th year trying to get approval to build five luxury homes, one of which he plans to live in himself. For all those years, opponents have complained to zoning officials that those five new homes will bring in way too much noise and traffic and spoil their view.
Now, it looks like zoning officials are moving closer to approving the project.
It’s too bad Evans didn’t follow the lead of movie director George Lucas, who’s been refused permission to build a small studio on his property north of San Francisco. When Lucas wasn’t allowed to build on his 1100 acre estate, he announced he’d turn his estate into a big development of affordable housing (read that, ‘low rent’). These days it’s next to impossible for county officials anywhere to reject plans for affordable housing.
Evans should use the same strategy on his Malibu property. Heaven knows Malibu could certainly use a few hundred low-rent homes!
There are always a few bumps in the road when a website is re-designed. The new look of the Neighbors At War website makes it more friendly to mobile devices, so I hope you like it. Google required this re-design to make websites retain their searchability rankings. My site designer and webmaster, BTW, is one of the best in the business. Shannon Parish of Illustrating You is pretty busy with all her clients, but I’ll put her name out there anyway. Just don’t hire her away from me. I’d be lost in the woods without a compass!
I’m linking to the CAI site only for the purpose of backing up a previous blog.
If you are living in a Homeowners Association which experiences a weather or earthquake disaster, don’t count on getting federal help of any kind. An HOA member hit by a flood is not considered a homeowner, but an investor in a corporation. When 20,000 homes were damaged in the Boulder flood two years ago, many homeowners discovered they were flat out of luck. Those inside HOAs found that FEMA wouldn’t help them and they couldn’t get federal loans. They couldn’t buy federal flood insurance either because they didn’t live inside recognized flood zones. Who knew Boulder Creek could ever launch that big a flood?
We learned recently that if HOA boards in California don’t buy earthquake insurance for the whole community, then individual homeowners can’t get coverage either.
CAI reports that a couple of Democratic Congress members have made some progress in getting the feds to help Homeowners Associations badly hit by Hurricane Sandy.
CAI’s press release is about as dishonest and disingenuous as they come. What they should really be talking about is not about federal exemptions, but about the fact that the very membership of an HOA in CAI is a red flag to the feds. You HOA members are investors, NOT HOMEOWNERS!!!
Starting today, Google is making some huge changes that will cause millions of websites to seemingly vanish from search engines. Since 60% of all website access is now from mobile devices, many websites, including this one, will be substantially impacted.
To stay visible to you we have to completely redesign this website, which we’re now working on. It will necessitate us being offline for at least a day while the changes are uploaded. Unfortunately we’ll have to accept a completely different look.
I’ll try to give you advance notice when we’ll be offline.
