10 minute read
Cultural Diversity Awareness in an HOA
BY JOSEPH PRICE, CMCA, CAMEx, CCAM
The dictionary defines ethnicity as “referring to cultural factors, including nationality, regional culture, ancestry, and language.” HOAs are virtual melting pots and perfect examples representative of community diversity. A strong and healthy community encourages its membership to develop positive relationships and embrace their neighbors, regardless of their differences. Homeowners’ associations may see diversity in language, dress, food preparation that permeates beyond ones’ own unit, holiday traditions, religion, and cultural activities. There can be times that these differences become a focal point in your HOA.
People want to be accepted for who they are and feel comfortable where they live. It’s important that their culture and heritage are recognized and accepted. They want to be accepted for, and be able to celebrate, who they are and where they come from. Unfortunately, not everyone
feels the same. While some may easily embrace these differences, ignorance can drive reactions by some when they don’t know about another culture, and they may make assumptions based on misinformation or lack of understanding.
How Does This Impact an HOA?
It’s incumbent upon boards of directors to govern homeowners’ associations for all who reside within the community membership. There will be times when the board is forced to address issues revolving
around ethnically diverse situations. When
that time comes, the board is obligated to do its due diligence to determine if there is any action that needs to be taken. This process may include research, interviewing others,
determining if there is a rule or policy already in place that addresses the issue, or if a new rule would benefit the community, and ultimately determining what is in the best interest of the membership as a whole.
There are countless situations that may arise and it’s nearly impossible to plan for each and every one in advance, but it would behoove the board to proactively identify areas that could become a problem in the future and adopt rules that help the membership understand what is reasonable and acceptable.
One such potential issue surrounds holiday decorations. Whether your membership celebrates Christmas, Chinese Lunar New Year, Hanukkah, Cinco de Mayo, Ramadan or another cultural holiday, the issue is the same. That is, what is acceptable and reasonable? Can you put up decorations and lights? When is it appropriate to display the decorations and hang the lights? How long after the holiday must they be removed? The board needs to proactively establish rules and regulations that outline what type of décor is allowed, for which (or any) holiday, and what is a reasonable length of time for them to be on display.
Nuisance complaints are another common matter that a board is faced with. There are a number of potential nuisance complaints that may come your way. Just what constitutes a nuisance can be confusing to many. Regardless of the issue, nuisance complaints cannot be ignored. When a complaint is presented to the board, they have the obligation to investigate whether or not it is a true public (does it interfere with the health and well-being of the community) or private (does it interfering with
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an individual’s use or enjoyment of their property) nuisance. Bear in mind that not every issue is considered a nuisance. Some may require action while others will be unjustified. In doing their due diligence, the board will come to a reasonable conclusion with regards to its legitimacy.
While there are a number of nuisances you may address within an HOA, the most common one from an ethnicity standpoint deals with strong food odors entering into other units. Similar to smoke from one unit reaching into another, you may already have a rule in place that deals with nuisance odors overall. If not, you may want to determine if this would be a beneficial rule for your community.
When you choose to live in close proximity to others (like in a homeowners’ association), there is bound to be some unavoidable crossing of boundaries that range from minor annoyances to serious issues – which need to be addressed quickly. Like it or not, living in an HOA means that you have to accept that there may be times you feel annoyed or have to tolerate something because a neighbor is doing something reasonable within the confines of their property. It is up to the board to make a determination regarding legitimacy of a claim. Depending on the age of your community, your governing documents may include language prohibiting certain individuals from living in the community. This is a frequent inclusion in documents written prior to 1968. Take a look at yours, and if this language exists, talk to your association legal counsel on how best to address. Laws have subsequently been passed that void this type of covenant. However, if you’re thinking about making other revisions to your documents, it should be a consideration to make this change at the same time. Encourage More Awareness of the Cultural Differences Within Your Community Education plays a huge role in helping homeowners have a better understanding of the cultural variety within their community. Making an effort to celebrate the differences within the membership is appreciated and can be a lot of fun. Why not look at establishing a committee that focuses on planning multicultural events that are relevant to your membership. Encourage neighbor participation on committees to get involved.
Keep lines of communication open to all. Language barriers can have an impact where those without a good grasp of English may miss important messages. Does your community have a large percentage of its membership who speak only Spanish, Mandarin or Italian? If so, determine if it would be beneficial to have your governing documents, elections materials or budget packet translated before distribution to help bridge the communication gap. Doing so may help them from feeling isolated and encourage involvement in the community at large. Or perhaps there is someone on the management team who can attend meetings and interpret messages as needed. There’s No Better Example of Diversity Than a Homeowners’ Association
Having an awareness of diversity signifies a welcoming and support of the uniqueness of all people regardless of their race, religious beliefs, ethnicity, age, gender, physical abilities, political beliefs or socio-economic status.
The fact that we can live in communities that are rich with diversity is truly exceptional. It’s an opportunity to learn more about different pockets of the world and make new and unexpected friends along the way. Don’t we all want to live in harmony? It takes awareness, effort, education and partnership from all to accomplish. And ultimately, through diversity, you just may find you’re not that different after all. Joseph Price, CMCA, CCAM, CAMEx is President of Next Step Community Management, LLC. Mr. Price previously held multiple executive level positions with some of the largest community association management companies in the country. He is a certified Community Association Manager (CCAM), and also holds the designation of Community Association Management Executive (CAMEx) from the California Association of Community Managers (CACM). He also is a Certified Manager of Community Associations (CMCA) from the Community Associations Institute (CAI). Joseph is involved in the industry and serves on the Board of Directors for CACM and is a regular speaker for industry events. Education plays a huge role in helping homeowners have a better understanding of the cultural variety within their community. Cultural Diversity Awareness Continued from page 19
WELCOME TO OUR New Professional Members
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Hopkins & Carley, a premier Silicon Valley law firm, represents California homeowners’ associations and counsels members and boards on compliance with association, board, and member duties under the Davis-Stirling Common Interest Development Act as well as other state and federal laws; analyzes fiduciary duty, free speech, discrimination, parking, and insurance issues; helps clients address construction needs; and handles CC&Rs and architectural enforcement matters, assists clients facing political challenges, financing large capital improvements, or other projects requiring membership or judicial approval on matters relating to day-to-day operations of your condominium association. Please contact us for any of your Association-related needs. Ms. Solomatina currently serves on the Board of Echo.
Katrina E. Solomatina, Esq. Direct: 408.299.1376 | Mobile: 408.966.6593 ksolomatina@hopkinscarley.com hopkinscarley.com
Founded in 1996, ProTec Building Services has grown to 400+ employees and nine regional offices throughout Southern California and Southern Nevada. From day one, we have provided maintenance, repair, construction and inspection services to Community Managers and the HOAs they serve for one reason – “To Improve Quality of Life.” We have worked to perfect our service offerings and streamline the community maintenance process by implementing our Preventive Maintenance Programs that more than 1,000 HOAs have utilized over the past two decades. As we continue to expand into new markets, these programs have remained at the core of our business as they have been proven to save HOAs time and money, as well as ensuring the longest possible lifespan of each common area component.
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SANTA CRUZ EDUCATIONAL SEMINAR
Saturday March 14, 2020 7:30 am - 12:30 pm
www.echo-ca.org
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1. Type the event link indicated above into your browser. 2. Click on the “Register” Button located at the top right. 3. In the registration window click “Enter Promo Code” at the top left. 4. Enter your code and click “Apply.” 5. You should see both “Price” and “Fee” updated and reflecting the discounted price. 6. Choose the number of registrants and continue the checkout process.
