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HOAs being slammed after post about two dogs mandate digs up anti-Black roots

'HOAs are racist and classist, and should be outlawed,' one user tweeted

Homeowners Associations (HOAs) have drawn major flak on social media after a Reddit user called out their nosy neighbor for complaining about them having more dogs than allowed. Typically, these associations, popularly referred to as HOA makes and enforce rules and regulations for a housing community or condominium complex, and are sometimes even initiated by a real estate developer for marketing purposes.

But as Twitter has brought to the limelight, these associations have become notorious and infamous for the unnecessary regulations they impose - like extra rent for pets, and often an upper limit on them too. But the problem doesn't stop there as Twitter users are highlighting the alleged racist roots of these HOAs, with the National Building Museum's documents citing that they were started to impose restrictions on the race and religion of people allowed to live in a community.

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The original post that sparked the controversy surrounding HOAs was made under the AITA subreddit, which is an acronym for 'am I the a**hole'. The unidentified user who made the post detailed how they had to move to their parent's home where they have three dogs as pets. The alleged nosy neighbor complained about the person's pets as the HOA in their neighborhood has a two-dog upper limit.

"We have 3 dogs however, 2 of them look almost the same so we would never walk all three at once," writes the user. But the neighbor's complaints lead the HOA to investigate, and incidentally, one of the similar-looking dogs was at the vets, so the user was able to trick the investigation into believing they weren't breaking any rules. And this won over Twitter, with users writing "Gaslighting is okay when it's about dogs and HOAs." 

The clear distaste for HOAs shared by most people on Twitter was further explained by these associations' alleged racist roots. As pointed out by one user, "Fun fact abt HOAs: They were started in L.A. County around the time the Supreme Court ruled that housing covenants preventing Black families from gaining access to better single-family homes were illegal. They literally exist to prevent the upward mobility of Black folx." Another chimed in: "HOAs were originally created to make sure only the "right kind" of people were allowed to live in your neighborhood. While you can't specifically ban someone for being Black, Jewish, Asian, etc anymore, the way codes are unequally enforced shows it's still going on."

One person visiting the National Building Museum came across interesting documentation from the history of HOAs that explained how in the 1830s, these associations were started to decide what "race" and "religion" were acceptable to live in their community. "The first homeowner associations protect housing developments with covenants restricting the use of land and detailing the acceptable race, religion, and drinking habits of their residents," read the excerpt about the history of HOAs and this riled up several users, as one asked: "How do these even exist anymore?"

A few users were of the opinion that HOAs should be dubbed illegal. "HOAs are racist and classist, and should be outlawed," wrote one user. Another user, who also seemed to have a similar experience with HOAs and pets, shared on Twitter: "I once had an apartment that charged 50/mo per pet, and my roommate and I both mentioned we had a cat named Molly. They charged us for one cat. We had two cats named Molly. They never realized it and we never actually lied. anyway HOAs are trash and pet rent should be illegal."