Last week marked the 39th anniversary of the closure of Willowbrook State School in New York, a severely overcrowded and unhealthy living environment that impacted thousands of people with developmental disabilities. Yet in the decades since its closure, homeowners associations continue to limit the ability of people with disabilities to build lives of accessibility, value and inclusion.
Even before I understood the advocacy that went into the closure of institutions and the creation of community-based services, my life was better for it. Through school, work and home, I have had friends who – without these efforts – wouldn’t be able to pursue the lives of their choosing.
My neighbor (who we’ll call Lily) has also benefited. Most weekends, Lily is visited by her mom, who has mobility challenges. Recently, her other family member has begun long-term use of a wheelchair.
Yet a few months ago, Lily received a violation letter from her HOA, requiring removal of personal items from the common area view. The included photo showed toy scooters tucked onto her porch, and a wheelchair sitting on the walkway from the driveway to the front door. Lily was fuming. My sense of the situation’s injustice had me scouring the HOA’s 63-page Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions (CC&Rs) for answers. I found no guidelines for things left out, other than trash and motor vehicles. The HOA was unresponsive to my questions. This launched a series of conversations that revealed a gap in how community members with disabilities maintain housing.
It has taken ongoing legislation and court rulings for the Americans with Disabilities Act and community-based living to be enforced. In the late 80s, my aunt and I visited a friend who has cerebral palsy. My aunt helped her friend into the car, then effortfully put the wheelchair in the trunk. It was a struggle. There weren’t consistent curb cuts, so in the busy San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, getting to the car was a challenge.
As a child, I wasn’t aware of legislative advocacy surrounding accessibility issues. Now, after contacting 11 organizations and government agencies working on housing and/or legal support for people with disabilities, I still hit a dead end.
This barrier was built into the architecture of the HOA itself. The Davis-Sterling Common Interest Development Act limits the ability of the government to enforce certain complaints, directing people to hire legal counsel. A complaint process exists. However, it requires knowledge, energy and finances that people with disabilities have in short supply due to barriers they face. While remedies are pursued, unwarranted violations can pile up.
HOAs set and police their guidelines with little governmental oversight, making people with disabilities face the blowback. To be sure, HOA regulations exist to create a welcoming environment that maintains resident quality of life, but whose quality of life do they prioritize?
When purchasing a home that is part of an HOA, buyers sign on to CC&Rs. However, HOAs don’t need to provide them until after an offer has been made. Once requested, HOAs have 10 business days to provide the documents, but buyers only have three calendar days to review these often 50-100 page documents. California requires CC&Rs be at an 8th-grade reading level, but 54% of Californian adults read below a sixth-grade level. This creates a long-term financial commitment tied to inaccessible guidelines.
The challenge this creates isn’t a theory. Housing discrimination complaints largely relate to disability status. In California, they make up 54 percent of the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development’s discrimination complaints. Similarly, barriers are created by inaccessible units, inadequate zoning laws and pushback against building new or maintaining existing accessible units. These limitations apply to all 14M Californians who live in HOAs.
Every person is critical to our communities; Quality of life should not be prioritized based on one’s disability. Now, each time I walk my dog, Lily’s house begs the question: If her family’s presence required such a hard-fought win, what must we continue to do to deconstruct built-in discrimination?
To start, learn the processes that HOAs follow and challenges they present; Center for California Homeowner Association Law is one place to begin. Ask your elected officials about how your state’s laws apply to HOAs, and then ask them what they plan to do to strengthen protections for residents and guests. If you live in an HOA, run for the board of directors and strengthen protections for marginalized neighbors. If nothing else, get to know your neighbors and check in on them. You might be surprised how far having an advocate will go in creating a more inclusive community.