Privatizing Urban Services Through Homeowners Associations: The Potential and Practice in Phoenix

Homeowners associations (HOAs) are private nonprofit corporations that regulate, “tax,” and provide urban services to growing numbers of U.S. residents. As such, HOAs may affect cities' public service delivery. Interviews with department heads in Phoenix, Arizona reveal how enclaves of private services influence the city's planning and provision of public services. The findings suggest that HOAs do not substitute private for public services in Phoenix. Instead, qualitative differences in the services themselves (particularly concerning their purpose and scale) and in the legal powers of their providers create a more nuanced pattern of public-private service delivery.