Re: Foster Parenting in Cohousing
From: Joani Blank (jeblankic.org)
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 03:01:10 -0500
Leni,

Great good thought, Leni. I don't want to discourage you right out of the
blocks, but here's a little story that might interest you--and others. When
I was living in single family house in Burlingame CA, my husband and I
became got licensed as a foster home and then never were offered a
placement. Both of us worked for the Health and Welfare Department, so a
year and a half or so down the road, I inquired as to why. The answer was
very evasive, so when I pursued it with a friend who worked in Foster Care,
I was told it was because we had a hot-tub in our back yard, making our
home an unsuitable place for a preteen or teenage girl to be placed.  I
guess it didn't occur to them simply to ask that we wear bathing suits in
the tub when our foster daughter was around. 

This was a really long time ago, and I hope that by now, foster care
agencies would see how wonderful cohousing would be for the placement of a
foster child. I fear, however, that they  may still look for the most
conventional of living situations, and might very well feel like cohousers
are just plain too weird for them to use as foster families. Fortunately, a
lot depends on the agency and on the individual doing licensing and
placements, and I hope you are lucky enough to find cooperative varieties
of both.

Joani Blank
Old Oakland CoHousing at Swan's Market, Doyle Street Cohousing, CA

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