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Article
Courtesy of The Ocala Star-Banner
By
MILLARD K. IVES
Published September 6, 2005
OCALA - As some organizations seek to coordinate temporary homes for people devastated by Hurricane Katrina, the Majestic Oaks Homeowners Association is reminding its residents the evacuees aren't welcome in that community.
The association delivered notices to its 500-plus homes Saturday advising homeowners "that our covenants and by-laws prohibit additional families in family homes."
Audrey Andrews, vice-president of the board, said Monday they encourage residents to make donations or charitable contributions to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. But, she added, the board thought it needed to ward off any sudden influx of evacuees.
"These are single-family residences, and that's what they were intended for," Andrews said Monday.
Andrews did add that association residents can bring in evacuees who are family members.
Association board members began discussing the situation after word got to them that a minister in the community had traveled to New Orleans to bring back three families of evacuees, said association President Bob Watson. Watson said Monday that, even in the trying times following Hurricane Katrina, the covenants could not just be bypassed. That could bring on lawsuits from other residents, especially if the evacuees are still being housed three or four months down the road.
"How am I going to explain that to the judge," Watson said.
Watson said it wasn't clear who the minister is and that he had not been able to contact him to warn him not to bring back evacuees.
At least one area church, Blessed Trinity Catholic Church in Ocala, is asking parishioners to consider taking a family in.
Andrews said many residents welcomed the reminder but some were upset by the notice.
One resident, Nancy Fisher, said she took in evacuees from the hurricanes that hit Florida last year. She didn't feel the by-laws should apply to the community during the current crisis in the Gulf Coast.
"You shouldn't be asked to deny evacuees a place to stay just because you have a nice home," Fisher said.
Majestic Oaks is just outside Ocala off Southwest 60th Avenue and is a community of mostly block houses. This isn't the first controversy about possible violations of deed restrictions in the community.
In 1996, the association took a homeowner to court to make him remove a flag pole and the American flag from his yard.
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