Cohousing-L Mailing List: Fair housing laws

[Marganne (marganne]

At 8:33 PM -0400 7/1/07, Elizabeth Magill wrote:
>  >> However ... there's nothing magic about the age "50."
> > >  Why not cohousing for adults of all ages?
>
> Federal Fair Housing Laws specify that discrimination based on 
> "familial status" is illegal throughout the united states.
> "Familial status" is the presence of children or the possibility of 
> children.

Elizabeth,

Thank you for posting the exact restrictions that exist. I've often 
wondered how people accomplished restricting their cohousing project 
to any particular belief or characteristic other than age 55. Has 
there been problems with projects that were, only for example, 
Christian, or Gay and Lesbian, or all men or all women? I've read 
that in the process of being considered for membership, these kinds 
of things usually reconcile themselves. But, if push came to shove, I 
thought the fair housing laws would prevail. Just curious.

Cheers!
Marganne