Homeowners Associations and the Creation of Homogeneity

When some people think of HOA neighborhoods, they picture sameness. The grounds are decorated with rows of plants. The community is free of trash and other debris. The houses look more or less the same. The lawns appear perfectly maintained. The cars are nicely hidden in the garages. And there are white picket fences, two-parent households with 2.5 children and a cat and or a dog.

Oh yeah, and everyone is white.

Let’s not pretend that the origins of Homeowners Associations in the United States wasn’t based on racism. Of course it was! Land developers wrote deed restrictions and covenants built on exclusionary practices: in-group versus out-group. And who could be more “out” in the great USA other than Black people?

Under the guise of “protecting property values,” white people excluded Black people from purchasing homes in white communities; and they created HOAs to accomplish this. To top it off, the federal government backed it. And although Black skin is the easiest to visually discriminate against, there were other groups of people that white people did not want living amongst them:

Here’s an example that you can find in the Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law. It is from the 1920s in a subdivision in Missouri:

“No person of Negro, Mongolian, or Semitic race shall be permitted to purchase, lease, or occupy any lot or dwelling within this subdivision. All lots shall be conveyed only to persons of the Caucasian race.”

Apparently, some of this wording is still present in deeds and CC&Rs across the U.S., but it is just too physically taxing and expensive to purge racist verbiage from the books.

The next time you are looking for homogeneity in a community—I mean when you say you want to live in an HOA community—ask yourself what you are really seeking. Be honest…because it is a myth that they protect property values.