A retirement community in Largo, FL is fighting to evict a six-year-old girl (link has sound) from her grandparent’s house. The community rules are that residents must be older than 55, but Judie and Jimmy Stottler are the only parents Kimberly Broffman has ever known. Kimberly’s mother has drug and personal issues and lost custody of her when she was about 6 months old.

The debate has been going on for several years, but the Stottlers have been unable to sell their house since the housing market collapsed and the homeowner’s association is taking the Stottlers to court. A judgment is expected soon and there’s the possibility that Kimberly could be placed in foster care.

On one hand, I think the community has every right to enforce their rules, but on the other hand, even though this has been going on for a while, it seems like this would clearly be an exception.

The Stottlers appear to be taking measures to parent the girl without imposing on others and actively trying to sell their house. This exception would be the right thing for the homeowner’s association to do, and it doesn’t mean that they’d have to allow other kids into the community. It appears to be completely illogical to place the girl in an already burdened foster care system in hopes of reuniting her with her family when the family doesn’t want to be in the situation either, and the girl isn’t in danger.

Though there are probably also rules against renters in communities like this, it seems that if they truly want the little girl out, that exception might be a better option for them, or even trying to arrange some sort of house trade with people of the appropriate age.

-Elizabeth Thielke