Tag: HOA

2010 US Census ignores HOA demographics

With an estimated 20% of the population (based on industry data) residing in homeowners associations,  a percentage higher than either that of Black of Hispanic categories, the demographics of HOAs remains a mystery.  Who lives in homeowners associations?

 

The only hint at HOA demographics comes from the 2007 industry survey on HOA satisfaction, sponsored by the Community Associations Institute (CAI) trade group[i].  This sample of some 709 phone calls revealed a significant difference between the sample and the 2000 US Census data[ii]. 

 

Category HOA Survey US Census
Age 50+ 61% 27%
Education: college + 68% 24%
Minority 11% 25%
Incomes over $50,000 79% 42%

 

This difference can be explained by one of two alternatives.  One is that the sample is biased in order to bring about the most highly favorable results for CAI.  The other is that the sample does reflect the norms of  homeowners associations, and reveals that the HOA population represents a distinct class or subset of American society: the senior, educated, white, well-off segment of America. 

 

The demographics of this survey should be of concern to the policy makers.  If the sample demographics are representative of HOAs, then the claims of HOAs as “affordable housing” should be replaced with the more accurate description, “discriminatory housing.”   Then the public policy that requires only HOA subdivisions for all new housing in an increasing number of towns and cities is discriminatory.  Unless, of course, the above demographics are not representative of homeowner associations.

 

It would seem that the time has come for “the acceptance of a quiet innovation in housing”[iii] to be exposed to the sunlight, and that a more thorough survey of homeowner association demographics is in order.  Who lives in HOAs?  Are HOAs, aided and abetted by local government mandatory HOAs for new housing,  establishing a class division within America?  

 

Notes

[i] As of this writing, all online links, either on the CAI or Zogby sites, to the details of this study are missing. The Jan. 19, 2008 analysis, see n. 2, references this web address: Survey.  A copy of the methodology was downloaded at that time and can be viewed here, http://pvtgov.org/pvtgov/downloads/survey-2007.pdf.

[ii] See Who lives in an HOA? Public officials take notice  (Jan. 2008).

[iii] Taken from the title of the CAI co-funded book, Community Associations: The Emergence and Acceptance of a Quiet Innovation in Housing. Donald R. Stabile (Greenwood Press 2000).

Government of the people, by the people, for the HOA

 

The following email letter from Mr. Brown to the Arizona legislative leaders reflects his concern about democracy in America.  (For more information on this HOA bill, please see public streets: the battleground for private or public government control).   

hoa constitution
hoa constitution

My dear President Burns, Chairman Tibshraeny, Vice-Chairman Harper, Members of the Senate Government Institutions Committee, Senator Bunch, Representative Barto, Co-Sponsors of HB2153 and Representative Barnes:

“From time to time we read in the newspapers, or hear on the radio, about policies and procedures and practices in the Arizona legislature. Most often that which we read or head is critical of how the legislature goes about its business. Words such as “fair” and “open” and “level playing field” are used, as if to imply that the legislature should operate in a significantly different manner that it does.” Senator Randall Gnant, “From Idea…..To Bill…..To Law, The Legislative Process in Arizona,” February 2000

The Guest Opinion, “Who controls public streets,” Arizona Capitol Times, April 1, 2010, is on-point re the proposed HB2153 legislation as well as the global issues respecting associations’ control of property not owned by an association, associations’ control of the conduct and actions of Arizona citizens clearly not subject to the association’s governing documents and associations’ coveted power and dominion over homeowners subject to the association’s governing documents, the sacrosanct “private contract.”

Association stakeholders opposed to HB2153 regularly blur the lines between their long-held belief in “private contracts” not to be interfered with by federal, state, county and/or municipal governments and certainly not the legislature unless and until it suits the stakeholders and their client associations’ interests as evidenced by associations’ growing reliance on “what can government do for” stakeholders and associations today. (See Community Resource, Issue 1 / 2010, “What Your Local Government Can Do For You,” Community Associations Institute / Central Arizona Chapter, attached)

“Getting a hearing on a bill is a crucial first step for individual citizens, lobbyists, special interest groups and state agencies..in the Senate, bills that receive a hearing have a high likelihood of passing the full Senate. So, while failure to secure a hearing is a virtual disaster for a bill, getting a hearing takes a bill on the longest step towards becoming law.” (Gnant)

Please include HB2153 on the Committee On Government Institutions’ agenda, Consideration of Bills, permitting the peoples’ representatives in the Senate to vote on the bill’s passage as your brethren in the House, the people’s other representatives, did so on February 17, 2010 (43/14/03).

Respectfully,

William M. Brown