Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Policies for guests on property

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

A fundamental question about the desire for background checks:  Is it really 
the fear of now being responsible for a community of people. Feeling 
responsible/fearful that a person "you" allow to enter that community may harm 
someone. 

There is no protection against this except the same judgments that we use 
everyday to determine if someone is a danger. In fact our own immediate 
judgments are probably much better than the information in a background check. 

I do remember feeling very exposed early on because we were a spectacle. People 
wandered in. Residents invited everyone they knew to meals. We had tours. It 
was a fishbowl for a couple of years and that feeling returns every time a new 
household moves in. They invite all their friends and relatives--or they invite 
themselves-- to assure everyone this is not strange.

People try to direct those who need help to us. They need a community to take 
care of them. At what point are we overwhelmed?

I don't think the question is about background checks. It's about a new 
responsibility -- an unknown.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org