Emerging Patterns of Housing, Community, and Local Governance: The Case of Private Homeowners Associations

Author: Kathryn M. Doherty

Dissertation School: University of Maryland at College Park

Pages: 299

Publication Date: January 2000

Availability:
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Access Number: 10713

Abstract:

This study explores the internal workings and external relationships of a growing type of local neighborhood and community organization-the private homeowner association. Local associations have long been romanticized as places where Americans build community, learn the skills of a democratic participation, and develop the habits of good citizenship. To the extent that private homeowner associations are significant local institutions that organize neighbors and have self-governing capacity, they are organizations worth examining in relation to the romantic ideal. Private homeowner associations are a particularly interesting subject of inquiry because there is real disagreement about whether these associations are a positive or negative force strengthening communities, engaging citizens in self-governance, and enhancing public affairs. By means of a survey of leaders of private homeowner associations, personal interviews with a variety of actors involved in private homeowner associations issues and management, and public policy, examination of various documents and records, and personal observations of private homeowner association affairs, I focus this study on Montgomery County, Maryland, where private homeowner associations house almost half of the entire county population and encompass an estimated one-third of all dwelling units.

My study weighs the evidence on private homeowner associations in this large suburban county against two competing models of how private homeowner associations operate as political communities. One model suggests that private homeowner associations have the potential to be "school of democracy" where community thrives and residents are meaningfully engaged in governing themselves. The other model suggests that private homeowner associations are more like "shadow governments" that, contrary to the first model, are characterized by private-regarding residents and motives, as well as lack of participation, self-governance, and community.

On the basis of my research, I find that both models inadequately capture the internal functions and public consequences of private homeowner associations. Because private homeowner associations represent hybrid organizations-part government, part corporation, and part civic/neighborhood group- -they have characteristics that are consistent with the and characteristics that compete against what these models suggest about community, self-governance, and the public engagement of private homeowner associations.

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