Yesterday the local news station did a story about a single Mom with four children whose home was sold out from under her by her HOA. For those who don’t know what an HOA is, it is an acronym for Home Owners Association. HOAs are formed by housing developments to maintain the integrity of the development through covenants and monthly dues. The dues can be $100-500+/month depending on the development. A new homeowner usually signs and gets a copy of the covenants with the mortgage paperwork at closing when they buy a house. The covenants cover things like acceptable house colors, landscaping requirements, trash storage, number of cars per household, improvements and/or additions, etc. While it is a good thing to set a standard that will benefit everyone who lives in the housing development, sometimes the HOA board takes their authority too far. This woman had left her empty trash can at the curb and did have a couple of landscaping violations that resulted in fines that accrue if unpaid by a certain time. As a busy single Mom, she let things go and the fines grew to an unmanageable size. According to the woman, the HOA didn’t let her know how dire things were until they sold her home out from under her, even though she was continuing to make her mortgage payments. Friends and family raised money to satisfy her fines but the HOA didn’t budge and still sold her home. The person who bought her home, thankfully, is renting it back to her then even offered to sell her home back to her but they have since reneged on that offer.
My heart broke for this woman. She doesn’t know what she is going to do. We live in a development with an HOA but it is a voluntary one because a previous HOA president allegedly embezzled funds. Because of the ensuing lawsuit, our HOA was dissolved and while a board still exists, they cannot require monthly dues, only request a monthly voluntarily contribution. They did request we use a specific trash company to limit the number of different trash trucks driving through the development but that didn’t work because the “desired” company proved to be quite pricey. We had an issue with a neighbor and when we called to get help were told there was “nothing they could do” even though they had other complaints about that particular homeowner. The HOA still has board members walk through the neighborhoods looking for violations of the covenants but they really have no authority to enforce compliance other than a sternly worded letter. We don’t contribute because they didn’t help with our difficult neighbor. They do put out a newsletter but it’s usual late and not very informative.
My final thought about this story was why would Any HOA want to create another homeless family? Homelessness is a scar on too many cities. You can’t drive around anywhere in our area and not see homeless encampments. I can’t convince myself anyone would want to be homeless, living wherever they can find a space. Imagine not being able to bathe every day or brush your teeth. Not having a soft, warm bed to sleep in. Not eating regularly. Not having clean clothes, a warm coat in winter, good shoes and socks. Not feeling safe, ever. Think about paring down your belongings to a couple of trash bags. Sometimes homelessness is a choice because of mental health or addiction problems but too many times, it’s just not. There but for the grace of God, go I. If you think a neighbor or friend is struggling or needs help, reach out. Let us all be more mindful of the needs of others and ever grateful for all that we have.
What struck me about this single Mom’s story was why didn’t any of her neighbors help her out before it got so dire? No one seems inclined to help their neighbor anymore. I wondered why a neighbor couldn’t have dragged her trash can up to her garage for her? I don’t know what her landscaping issues were, the story didn’t elaborate. I couldn’t help but wonder why a neighbor didn’t offer to mow her grass, maybe water the plants for her. The story showed where she lives and it looked like a very nice area. Where are her neighbors who could have noticed she was struggling and offered to help? As seniors with mobility issues, there have been many times when we could have used help. Like last year when my husband was experiencing extreme bouts of vertigo or when my arthritic knees are painful just to walk to the mailbox. Our front yard suffered until we hired a lawn service for a yard 12’ x 9’, very small but $$. Fortunately, recently we found a “handyman” service that isn’t too expensive. In the last few months we’ve gotten work done that definitely would have resulted in citations and fines from an HOA with authority. Don’t misunderstand, we have nice neighbors now and we’re sure if we were desperate they would help. That wasn’t always the case. As a child, neighbors, friends and relatives would have helped, often times without being asked. Where are those people? Have we become so divided, afraid and angry that we can’t help each other?
Soosey’s Ruminations 