The street where I live: a short story

We live in a decent neighborhood.

I say decent, because years ago, when it was newer, it used to be awesome. My family has lived here for several generations now and I used to listen to the stories my grandparents would tell about how things were when they were my age. Kids played in the streets, using their imaginations and the things around them. They fought against Indians, robbers, spies, aliens and monsters, solved mysteries they invented themselves, found friends who were hiding, and played all kinds of games that required hand eye coordination and a knack for strategy.

Oh, what fun they had.

Now, not all was good, mind you. My grandparents also talked about a couple big fights that sprung up with some other neighborhoods that went on way too long. They also talked about another period, one that lasted even longer than the fights, where food, money and work were scarce. Scary times. Some people didn’t make it. Most did, but nearly everyone felt the hardship.

I suppose it’s possible that their accounts were a little bit exaggerated, but I know that their stories are at least somewhat true, because I experienced the tail end of those times myself. Now, those days, like everything else, live on only in memory.

A while back, along the time my parents were born, it was decided our neighborhood should form a Home Owner’s Association (HOA). This was before the big fights or the lean times. A neighbor on the other end of the street had rented a room to someone, and in a short time, the tenant proposed the idea of collecting money from each household in exchange for neighborhood improvements, like a formal park, with a proper picnic area, along with some other amenities.

In addition, one of things they proposed was a fence be built, thus turning our neighborhood into a gated community. There would be a guard or two at the entrances, and a neighborhood patrol during the evening times.

To pay for it all would take some money. Since there were only 48 houses at the time (two more were built later), the fees would be two-percent of the household’s annual gross income.

Well, in those days, two-percent was a lot a money, but many of the families here were fairly well-to-do, and they knew that other neighborhoods weren’t as nice as theirs was. They knew they had worked hard to keep their yards up and their homes clean, and that they’d taught their children to clean up after themselves and leave other people’s property alone unless they got permission. They’d help a neighbor at the first sign of trouble, and pretty much stayed out of each others’ way, otherwise.

Still, two percent seemed like a small price to pay for an added sense of security, and with a park and other nice things, the money would be an investment for the future.

So, a document authorizing the forming of a HOA and the collecting of fees was drafted, tweaked, and then voted on by the neighbors. It was not unanimous (six either voted against or failed to vote at all), but with seven-eighths of households in favor, the HOA idea passed with overwhelming support.

No one knows for sure how it happened, but the tenant who originally proposed the idea, not an actual homeowner themselves, was put in charge of running the HOA, making sure everyone paid their dues, and that the money was appropriated responsibly.

In the beginning, things went pretty well. The park was started, so was the fence, and other things, too. But then came the first big fight, followed by the lean times, then the second big fight came.

Apparently, other neighborhoods got to looking around and decided they liked what they saw. But rather than doing something to clean up their own neighborhood, they decided they’d just come in and take what they wanted. As you can no doubt guess, that didn’t go over very well. The first time was more or less a rout—our neighborhood, who wasn’t really in the fight initially, joined the fray and it was pretty much over after that.

Because the fight cost money (lawyers and legals fees I suppose), the tenant decided the HOA fee should be raised so the unexpected expenses incurred could be paid off. No one really noticed, because the tenant had arranged to take the money directly out of each wage earner’s paycheck whenever they got paid. Since people’s earnings were kind of going up, too, it was impossible to tell. The tenant was supposed to notify the homeowners when they did such a thing, but the tenant either forgot, or decided it was best not to bother with such a thing.

Well, the scarce times hit, and that put a lot of the HOA amenities on hold. The streets in the neighborhood were in need of repair, too, and so was a couple pedestrian bridges spanning creeks. The tenant suggested the higher paid households, those lucky enough to still have jobs or other resources, should pay a little a more, and those who who had lost income or hours, a little less. There were another set of households that had very little left, and so fees weren’t collected from them at all. Instead, some of the money collected by their wealthier neighbors were given to the poorer ones.

The roads and bridges got more or less repaired or rebuilt, but even though more money was coming in from some, it wasn’t enough to take care of all of the needs of the neighborhood. The original promises of the HOA weren’t kept, as other, more urgent items claimed higher priority. Instead of the homeowners deciding what those priorities should be, however, it was the tenant who made the decisions.

Finally, the lean times were over, but not before the second big fight took place. In fact, some neighbors claim if it weren’t for the big fight, the lean times might have never ended. Others thought otherwise, but essentially, by the time the skirmish with the invading neighborhoods were over, peace once again reigned, and a period of prosperity was ushered in.

In the meantime, to keep up with the burgeoning expenses, the tenant continued to raise the HOA rates. Before anyone knew it, it was above ten percent. Originally, during the discussion about the HOA, the tenant claimed he did not foresee a need to ever go above two percent, because that amount would be more than enough to take care of the expenses of the park, etc. How could they have known there would be these fights and an economic downturn? Never mind that they had claimed to be an expert at HOAs, and that in almost every case they knew of, the HOA had vastly improved the living conditions of the neighborhood who formed it.

Unfortunately, the homeowners failed to take action when they could have. Times got better, and no one had the heart to rock the boat, after all the fighting and misery of previous times. Incomes were on the rise, the quality of living improved, and while there were skirmishes here and there with other neighborhoods, peace was more or less maintained.

At the same time that incomes were going up, so was the HOA fee. At one point, it grew as much as twenty-five percent for the wealthier households, while it was somewhat less for the kind-of-wealthy homeowners. There were still a few neighbors who didn’t recover from the lean times, weren’t able to find a job, and thus continued needing assistance from the others. The fact they didn’t really go looking, or want to work, was not lost on those who were paying extra so they could have the basics, but the tenant, when asked about it, said the haves should impart of their substance to the have nots with a humble heart and a willing mind.

Meanwhile, the park and other amenities were still not finished, and the fence never really began, though a security guard did get placed at one of the entrances into the neighborhood.

Regardless of all this, the majority of neighbors continued to keep up their yards, clean their houses and teach their children to be polite and play nice. Even without the amenities promised with the HOA, the neighborhood was a great place to live. Some neighbors sought to abolish the HOA, saying it was a waste of their money, especially when they had so little say in how the dues were spent, but somehow, the tenant always managed to either allay their fears, or put off their accusations of misappropriation or impropriety.

A time or two, some neighbors actually asked the homeowner where the tenant lived to kick them out, but the neighbor always refused, saying the tenant always paid their rent on time, and had actually made it possible for their own property to be improved on because of it.

Therefore, without further recourse or remedy, the homeowners would either shrug their shoulders and go back to their own lives, attending to what they could control, or they moved away. Eventually, two more house were built, one on a large lot, another on a small, but pretty one, and their fees were added to the rest.

No one is exactly sure when it happened, but something else started to occur. This happened primarily after I was born, so I can testify to a portion of it. There were neighborhoods not really involved in the previous fights who nonetheless desired the big yards and nice homes that our neighbors had. Why they didn’t just improve their own neighborhoods, I don’t know (maybe it would have been harder to do), but instead of coming in and fighting, they just started coming in the less guarded entrance and taking up residence on the property reserved for the park.

Now, the tricky thing about that was, the park was land which had once belonged to each of the property owners. The tenant, however, had said they would need a portion of each homeowners’ land in order to preserve for the park, so the HOA became in charge of the property, even though the property owner continued to pay property tax on it and was responsible for its upkeep.

Well, the infiltrators from other neighborhoods just started coming in and claiming the land. At first, the homeowner affected was successful in running the infiltrator off, but after a while, the tenant stepped in and said it wasn’t up to the homeowner to decide, and since the land actually belonged to the HOA, the tenant was the ultimate authority. The tenant had no problem with the infiltrators, since they, too, were not a homeowner, and so they sympathized with the infiltrators’ position. Besides, the infiltrators were only there, seeking a better life than what their neighborhoods were able to provide.

Without security, and with the complaints of the homeowners going unheard, the infiltrators continued to grow in numbers. In the meantime, money from the HOA was diverted to helping them settle in and take care of their necessities. They weren’t allowed to build homes on the land they claimed, but they were given nice tents which overtime became more and more elaborate with more and more amenities. Finally, an apartment complex, funded by the HOA, was built on the land to accomodate all those who were there.

Clashes between the homeowners and infiltrators, now apartment dwellers, continued to mount, mostly due to the administration style of the tenant. Whenever there was a conflict, the tenant was more likely to side with the apartment people than he was the homeowners, even though the apartment people really had no say in the dealings of the HOA. While the tenant had originally stated the apartment people would pay HOA dues, they never really did, since most of them were still too poor to afford the fees. Besides, the tenant said, they didn’t own a home, and it wasn’t their fault they weren’t making more money, since nearly all of them were now being employed by the homeowners themselves, to do all kinds of things, like landscaping, household chores, child care, etc.

See, in order to keep up with the additional HOA fees the tenant imposed, the homeowners felt compelled to send out more of their family members into the work force in order to pay the fees, and still maintain the quality of life they were accustomed to. Where only one household member needed to work before to make ends meet and still have disposable income and savings, now at least one other of the household was working, too. Since that fell on the adults, the children needed looking after when they weren’t in school, and since the apartment dwellers were there and looking for work, the homeowners felt they should get something out of the inconveniences the apartment dwellers were causing them.

More time passed. As the apartment dwellers, while not homeowners, were treated by the tenant as if they were homeowners, that encouraged other outsiders to come to the neighborhood. Many of them were friends, relatives or former neighbors of the apartment dwellers, so they stayed with them, up until the point they could move into an apartment of their own. After a while, the tenant decided more apartments should be built, and to do so, more money from the HOA was used.

As this went on, a paradox began to develop. Many of the apartment dwellers worked for the homeowners and were paid salaries, albeit not much more than minimum wage. At the same time, though, those same apartment dwellers were not paying rent for the apartments they lived in, or buying their own food and other necessities. Those were being subsidized by the HOA, which in turn, got its money from the same homeowners who were employing the apartment dwellers. The tenant was well aware of this, but since they weren’t a homeowner, it didn’t directly affect him, and so they turned a blind eye to it.

Whenever there was a decision to be made within the HOA, not only were the homeowners given a vote, but so, too, were the apartment dwellers. No, they didn’t own property in the HOA, no, they didn’t pay dues, and yes, they were the ones primarily spending the revenue from the HOA fees, but they liked the tenant because he had been so kind and generous to them (albeit, with the homeowners’ property and money). Thus, while they weren’t nearly as rich as the homeowners, or as numerous, yet, since they were granted say and voted as a block, the decisions made were almost always what the apartment dwellers wanted. If they didn’t get passed what they wanted the first time around, they merely brought it up again later, after they had a chance to work on the homeowners who had successfully voted it down.

To do this, they normally played on the generosity and goodwill of the neighbors. After all, the neighbors were good, decent people, and for the most part, had been willing to help in whatever way they could. In the past, when it had not been required by the HOA to pay a fee, they had helped one another during times of scarcity. No, it had not been fun, and no it was never optimal, but it was enough to get everyone through until an upturn began.

The HOA, the tenant had claimed, would prevent these downturns from happening as often and as bad as they had in the past. Then, when that didn’t happen, they said it would soften the blow of the bad times. When that proved untrue, they still insisted that it would have been worse had they not been there or if the HOA did not exist.

All this time, the homeowners put up with it, not knowing what else to do. Unable to take any more, some moved to other neighborhoods, though they never did find one better than the one they left behind. Others lost their homes because they could no longer pay for them and because they refused to be aided by the HOA. When those homes were left vacant, some of the apartment dwellers moved in, but continued to be employed by the remaining homeowners and receiving help from the HOA. These one time infiltrators, now homeowners, helped to vote in more and more restrictions of use on the properties in the neighborhood, saying it was for the betterment of the neighborhood, even though the rest of the homeowners didn’t really mind what others did, as long as it didn’t infringe on what they wanted to do. The apartment dwellers, having a say, helped to vote these restrictions in.

And that’s pretty much where we are now. There’s rumors that more people from other neighborhoods want to come in, some by force, some like the earlier infiltrators. There’s also a rumor that the tenant has been working with the leaders of HOA’s in other neighborhoods to facilitate this. Why should the good things acquired by the fortunate few not be shared with others who are less fortunate? Should opportunity be limited to where a person lives, or how much effort they put into things? Some believe that those who are prosperous were born into privilege, and that luck of the draw should not dictate who has wealth and who doesn’t. In other words, everyone should be equal. Everyone should be a homeowner.

What do I think?

I think I need to start looking for a place where there’s not a HOA and start over. This neighborhood is still better than many others, but it’s a shadow of its former self. As long as the hardworking decent people live here, the infiltrators and apartment dwellers of the world will continue to come, because the tenant and the HOA not only allows it, they encourage it. There is no other explanation. To say otherwise is to claim incompetence, because the HOA does not accomplish its stated task, or insanity, because reality is not what some would claim it to be.

I’ll do everything I can to improve this place, for as long as I can. At some point, though, you just have to get the heck out of Dodge.