By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities
Think living in a townhouse homeowners association means you’ll have a well maintained neighborhood? Think again.
Fox Hollow HOA in Memphis, Tennessee, is so poorly maintained and neglected that a heap of trash and broken down junk welcomes residents and visitors to their community. The City has issued code violations, but owners and residents say the HOA has not done anything to clean up the mess. Check out the recent video.
City officials: recurring townhome dumping problem going to court
WREG VIDEO
http://wreg.com/2016/11/22/city-officials-recurring-townhome-dumping-problem-going-to-court/
But this is hardly Fox Hollow HOA’s first time making headlines. In 2015, WREG reported on unsafe, unsanitary conditions in and around eight fire damaged townhouse units. According the following report, at the time it had been about a year and a half since the fire had taken place. The HOA said the fact that each unit has a different owner made it difficult to clean up the mess.
No kidding! Yet another reason why common interest association-governed housing just doesn’t work for the people.
Neighbors say charred, empty town homes are collecting trashWREG VIDEO
POSTED 6:30 PM, JULY 23, 2015, BY CAITLIN ALEXANDER, UPDATED AT 04:30PM, JULY 24, 2015Neighbors say charred, empty town homes are collecting trash
And another fire occurred in May 2016. This is a predictable pattern for HOA and condo association neighborhoods in decline. We see it over and over again, all over the country.
Abandoned apartments go up in flames
WREG
POSTED 6:25 AM, MAY 23, 2016, BY GEORGE BROWN AND SIOBHAN RILEY, UPDATED AT 12:13PM, MAY 23, 2016Excerpt from transcript:
It took firefighters about 20 minutes to get the fire under control. Neighbors say they`re worried. Most of the town homes are vacant and they see vagrants coming and going all the time.
Investigators don’t know if any of them accidentally set the fire.
“Homeless, teenagers, they just hang out around here all the time, all these empty buildings, they ain’t got nowhere to go,” said Ingram.
Tenants say drug addicts also hang out at the townhomes. That`s why some wonder if the fire was intentionally set.
Read more, see VIDEO here:
More recently, this past September, WMCActionNews 5 reported on the dire conditions at Fox Hollow “Apartments.” This is yet another failed “affordable” condo association with multiple unit owners, but apparently inhabited mainly by tenants.
To outsiders, these are apartments, but, in reality, Fox Hollow appears to be just another condominium association with multiple unit owners and lots of irresponsible landlords.
Who is collecting the rent? Who is collecting HOA assessments? It appears no one with the HOA is using that money to repair rotting roofs or broken windows, let alone picking up and hauling away trash.
Of course, with so many vacancies, there’s not much money coming in.
Residents say conditions at Fox Hollow exhibit “hopelessness,” and invite crime.
The Mayor expressed concern in a written statement (scroll down the bottom of the article below the video). But here it is several months later, and Fox Hollow is still strewn with trash.
Believe it or not, I was able to find two real estate listings online for Fox Hollow Townhomes: a vacant lot for $2,500 and a real estate agent owned condo unit being sold “as is” for a mere $9,000.
Any takers?
Memphis residents living in ‘dangerous’ conditions
WMCActionNews5.com VIDEO
Monday, September 5th 2016, 10:06 pm EST
Tuesday, September 6th 2016, 12:52 pm EST
So who is dumping trash? The residents? HOA management? Vagrants from outside of Fox Hollow? Who is supposed to pick up trash on a a regular basis? Can residents themselves help clean up some of the mess? That’s doubtful without a few dumpsters and a trash hauling service.
Certainly, the residents or owners cannot repair roofs, windows, or other parts of the community without funding and cooperation from the HOA.
So why isn’t the HOA doing its job? And why is the City of Memphis so slow to respond?
It’s quite obvious that few seem to care about the remaining people living at Fox Hollow. It’s just another cheap housing complex where poor folk can be hidden away from view, right?
Shameful that this is allowed to go on in America.
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