Fascinating interview with Professor Evan McKenzie about HOAs and privatization......

It's about an hour long, but well worth it when you get some free time


Listen: http://onthecommons.net/2011/05/07/on-the-commons-with-frank-short.aspx


The post war boom brought with it growth, wealth and seemingly unlimited possibilities. Cars and highways made it possible for families to move out to the suburbs in pursuit of the American Dream. Along with that dream came financial problems for local municipal governments. The solution, residential associations, then created a whole host of other problems that seem to be getting worse instead of better. HOA living has long been called a failed experiment but despite its many inherent flaws, the last several decades have seen an unstoppable growth in this type of housing.

In his highly influential first book, “Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government”, Professor McKenzie chronicled the early years of this new form of housing. Now, almost two decades later comes the much awaited “Beyond Privatopia: Rethinking Residential Private Government”.

Joining us On The Commons is Professor Evan McKenzie. Evan is a political Science Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he teaches law at John Marshall Law School, is a practicing attorney, a blogger and in his spare time writes books and articles and gives TV and radio interviews. We’ll talk about the evolution of HOAs, what they have been defined as and what they really are.

..... the central theme being that HOAs are not particularly small "d" democratic.

HOAs tend to be run by a clique' with a very singular agenda...

...as HOAs go. Yes, they are often controlled by cliques, and ours is no different, but we elect new officers every year (staggered)so the dynamics of the board changes. Our HOA been going 40 yrs now, and it works pretty good, comparably. We have had good money management and stay in the green. I would ask any HOA to look at our model and copy it.

for reference:we have about 1200 homes in our HOA, along with a 640 acre lake and a PGA rated golf course and assorted other amenities such as a lodge, tennis courts, disc golf, beaches, etc.

His main point is that HOAs are a part of the larger agenda of privatization of public services/governance by municipalities. Further, it is a failed experiment.

The issue is not cliques or rules in HOAs. Its much larger than that.

He didn't say this but I have always thought the reason they became so popular so quickly is that the cities/counties get the housing on the tax rolls (property taxes) but they get to skip the expense of building the infrastructure in the first place and, even better, get to skip the cost of maintenance of streets, sewers, storm drains, waterlines, street lights, snow removal, waste removal, etc. going forward. The cities also have no responsibility to assist in the governance of HOAs and don't really care what happens within same. In my experience it has only been within the past few years that a few municipalities are even asking to review a draft of an association's governing documents. However, the city manager/city government doesn't have the ability to determine if it is a workable structure. The cities just want the property taxes - nothing else matters.

They threaten residents with fines for things like painting your door the wrong color, displaying a flag, putting up holiday decorations. One reason we chose to live in our current home was because there was no HOA.

But it is a big issue for me and many other people to have HOAs dictating what we can do with the exteriors of our homes.

Of course the HOA concept is an abdication of municipal responsibility on street paving, garbage collection and many other traditionally government-provided services. Among other things it creates new levels of inequality, when less-affluent HOAs become unable to afford repaving,m etc.

This is the first enlightened and on-point discussion of this issue I have ever heard in 25 years of consulting with/managing HOAs.

Note: I am recently retired and happy to be so. They are a failed experiment in governance. Unfortunately, everyone (not just those who own in one) are stuck with the mess and I see no desire to actually tackle the octopus.