Posted on 04/03/2007 6:15:39 AM PDT by ShadowDancer
Community Sues To Oust 3-Year-Old
Child With Drug-Addict Mom Lives With Grandparents
POSTED: 3:04 pm EDT April 1, 2007
LARGO, Fla. -- A Florida homeowners group wants 3-year-old Kimberly Broffman to take her Big Wheel and hit the road.
They've banded together to oust the toddler from their Tampa-area community, which bans residents under 18.
The child's grandparents, Judie and Jimmy Stottler, admit Kimberly's been living there in violation of homeowners' association rules for three years. They said her mother has a drug problem, and isn't capable of caring for the child.
The grandparents said they live on a fixed income and can't afford to move until they sell their house. So far, there have been no takers to buy their house, even after they lowered the $189,000 asking price by $10,000 six months ago.
They also said they can't afford to hire an attorney.
Judie Stottler supports the family with her $18,000-per year dishwashing job because Jimmy Stottler is disabled and is unable to work.
Judie Stottler's friends told the St. Petersburg Times that they are worried.
"It is so ridiculous that this has gone so far," said Keith Tinsley, a cook who works with her. "She's trying her best to sell her house. It's like they are trying to force her to put Kimberly in foster care.
"These people keep batting her down and batting her down. They're just mean."
Judie Stottler said she is scared that she wil lose her house before she is able to sell it.
"We don't have any family to take us in," Judie Stottler said.
The Lakes homeowners association filed suit to oust Kimberly last month.
Nope, the Florida real estate market is that bad..
They've had three years.
ping
It wasn't in 2005, was it?
No, most people here are advocating living up to one's contractual obligations.
Accusing someone of greed and trying to 'guilt' them into agreeing with you is a disservice to your fellow FReepers, IMHO.
I am SO embarrassed. THERE= THEIR
forgive me.
“Sadly, this country has grown to ignore its seniors”
I would say that this countries seniors have ignored everyone else. Many on the give-give me generation expanding massive government give-away programs for them selves and they say the heck with anyone else. The AARP for example.
Or perhaps the house was put on the market at too high a price in order to insure there wouldn't be any 'takers'.
Face it, without more concrete details, we're all just guessing.
The family should simply lower the asking price of their home to the absolute minimum they can afford to accept, and thereby drive down the avg. price on their block.
Me too, but mine was painted camoflouge and had a troop ramp in the back and a trim vane on the front for when we swam it, along with an M2 and a Dragon mount.
It is the grandparents choice if they put him in foster care. There are options. They are playing the foster care card to get pity. Sorry, they did have three years to find something else, which is more than reasonable.
Yes, the child needs to be with the grandparents. But it is unfair to expect a whole community to forego the association rules because of this family’s misfortune. I admire the grandparents for steppingin and doing the right thing. They might have prevented the animosity by having more regard for the neighbors. A child riding a big wheel is pretty “rowdy” - not bad, just rowdy. That isn’t what I would want to hear (regularly) around my quiet, age-restricted neighborhood. The g-parents should do their best to “keep the peace” and try not to give neighbors something to complain about. I know, that may not be possible with some people. Simply letting the child ride a tricycle instead of a Big Wheel would help.
The child is only three years old. Chances are, the neighbors never saw her for the first 2 years, as she wasn't old enough to play outside alone.
I imagine that these old folks had this child dropped in their lap--something they never suspected would happen when they bought their home. (We all get the idea that the kids grow up and move out and our parenting days are over --what a joke!) I further suspect that the fact that this neighborhood has a "no child" policy is why houses don't sell very fast.It looks to me like the biggest mistake they have made is letting the kid have a Big Wheel. (And if I were a betting person, I would bet that the druggie mother provided that, trying to assuage her guilt over dumping the little girl.)
You said: I would say that this countries seniors have ignored everyone else. Many on the give-give me generation expanding massive government give-away programs for them selves and they say the heck with anyone else. The AARP for example.
***
You may have a point, I don’t know. This generations seniors, as well as for a couple of generations back, weren’t invited to stay with their children as they grew older, as used to be the case. I don’t know who abandoned whom.
While you are mincing your words, please find some substantiation for them. I went back and re-read all of the posts prior to yours, and see no hint that anyone is advocating foster care for the child. Perhaps that was in the article, but certainly not in the posts for which you are excoriating everyone.
Most of the posts are simply stating that the grandparents and the child must abide by the contract they have with the HOA. Personally, I despise HOAs. But this couple voluntarily ceded some of their freedom to the association, and now don't think it's fair that the rules they agreed to are being enforced. Having dropped their price by about 5 percent doesn't absolve them of their responsibility to follow the rules they agreed to.
If you can cite specific posts that support your assertion that foster care is being advocated, please do so. Otherwise, stop trying to emote everyone into a corner.
I believe that’s an option, not a requirement. They can go that high without losing their exemption from school taxes.
They should not be receiving an exemption from school taxes unless neither they nor their children attended public schools.
FWIW, I saw the couple interviwed on the boob tube, and they're miserable and want to leave. They really want to leave. But I got the impression they can't afford any kind of major financial loss, especially since it looks like they're going to be the primary caregivers for their little girl from now on. Their daughter seems to be a dead loss. If I were the HOA, I'd concentrate on getting them help finding a buyer.
In truth, with the demographics in Florida, it makes the neighborhood more desirable.
As a fiercely-independent conservative, I've never felt coerced in the three places I've lived governed by association boards. And the homeowners, when they sell and move, cry all the way to the bank.
There are tens and tens of thousands of associations in the fifty states. The few that are run by commie-fascist boards of directors are few and far between and these are the ones that make the news in the sensation-starved media.
When arrogance and travesties happen due to a rogue board the homeowners have the right every one or two years to vote the principle retards out of office.
Leni
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