Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: coronavirus in cohousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

(I don't think anyone from Takoma Village has posted. If so just skip this.)

We have a team that organizes this including a Dr of food hygiene (or a related 
field I have forgotten), a PhD in theoretical chemistry, and a graduate of West 
Point. I don’t know the specialities of the other members. 

All gatherings including meals and meetings, large or small, have been 
cancelled. We are all learning Zoom. The Zoom membership meeting has more 
attendees than any we can remember — I think the final number was 37. In 
households with 2 adults, they shared a connection. We had one person 
facilitating, one person doing tech support, and a third person watching the 
chat and conveying questions and requests to the facilitator. All microphones 
muted. We used the “hand raised” feature for those who wanted to speak. 

The guest rooms are closed. 

The kids room has been stripped of all hard to clean toys. Caregivers have to 
disinfect when leaving.

CH surfaces that are likely to have been touched were heavily wiped down with 
soap or sanitizer last week and then are wiped again every day. People coming 
and going are asked to wipe down surfaces they touch including door knobs.

Use of the small laundry room is being coordinated to stagger use. There are 
often traffic jams and it would be impossible to keep a 6 ft distance from 
anything.

Social distancing all around. People are self-quarantining on the most part — 
some completely if they think they have any exposure or are in a vulnerable 
population.

We have a wonderful guy, Herb, who is making regular runs to the coop. When 
others are going shopping they put out a message and people can contact them 
with their list. So far I think every request has been filled. Herb and Mark 
are very fast on offering aid of any kind.

Community sing last Friday — musicians in the piazza and people on the 2 
stories of walkways above. Planned as a regular event. 

A side note:

My unit looks out on a two lane street that is very busy and bumper to bumper 
during rush hours. There are far fewer cars now but the cars are social 
distancing!!!. Usually they are inching up on each other to be ready to get 
through the light as soon as it changes. Now they are keep at least 1/2 a car 
length between them and most, 1 car length. Even buses and trucks.

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