Cohousing-L Mailing List: providing self-isolating spaces for health workers

[Muriel Kranowski (murielk]

One of our large-hearted members is floating two related ideas, based on
the likelihood that our local timeline to peak coronavirus is 2-3 weeks
away and that some local front-line health workers will need to
self-isolate, with some needing a place away from their homes to do it.
She'd like us to discuss:
 (1) Opening the CH guest rooms to such workers in need of a quarantine
location
 (2) Similarly, agreeing that residents with homes that have the potential
for auxiliary rental spaces in their basement could let that space become a
quarantine location. Some of our members' homes have this kind of design,
with separate basement entrances and with, or the ability to add, minimal
cooking facilities like a dorm-sized fridge and a microwave and hot plate.

Has anything like this been done, or discussed and decided against, in
other coho communities during the current Covid crisis? Or if you have
enough medical or epidemiological expertise to weigh in, please do.

I don't know how to think about it -- on the one hand it is a very humane
idea, on the other hand it might be exposing the rest of us to additional
health threats to an unacceptable degree, even though we're all physically
distancing ourselves from one another. I welcome your thoughts on this.

We're going to have a community discussion about this (on Zoom of course)
on Thursday.