Re: Low cost community housing group
From: Marganne Meyer (margannemacnexus.org)
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:16:26 -0800 (PST)
Dear Chili,

So sorry about your current circumstances. Maybe there is some solace in knowing you aren't alone? There are a lot of people looking for alternatives that can't be met with existing cohousing programs.

We are a fairly responsible crowd who have lost most of our retirement funds, savings or equity for a variety of reasons. Some of us may be sociopaths. I don't know. Regular cohousing projects sometimes find out they are living with someone who is out of control but has enough money to afford to live in the project. I've read stories about it on this list. It sounds awful.

 At 12:54 PM -0500 1/22/10, Chili Head wrote:
I actually cannot believe someone would write this (not Marganne, but someone else): "these can attract people who are highly dysfunctional and thus the community can end up spending inordinate amounts of energy dealing with social pathology, something cohousing, with its economic barriers is largely free from ..."

Gotta say, even if we HAD money, I wouldn't want to be part of a community that embraces such opinions. If that's the true nature of
the majority of this list, I'm likely outta here.

Rob faced a very difficult time working with people who might not have been very functional -- both behaviorally and financially. Given the appropriate circumstances and supervision, perhaps a subsidized project could be developed for people disadvantaged like this.

NOT EVERY PERSON WHO IS ON DISABILITY, DOESN'T HAVE A JOB, OR HAS SUFFERED A SERIOUS ILLNESS IS DYSFUNCTIONAL!

It's a cultural bias. Some people can afford to live in any size of house they want, but make a choice to live simply. That's hard for many to accept. Can't do anything about it. If someone had this bias, I wouldn't want to live around them either.

I started the low cost housing community mailing list more than a year ago. It's been silent recently, although more than 70 people are subscribed. Maybe things will change.

I joined the Small House Society mailing list. What I learned there convinced me that cohousing (or some form of community housing) could accommodate people who either couldn't afford or didn't want to live in a typical large home.

The project described by Sharron is a great example of one way people can work together with others to create low-cost community housing.

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