Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Aging in place: community vs individual hired help?

[Sarah Lesher (sarah.lesher]

Sarah Lesher sarah.lesher [at] gmail.com

Our Aging in Place committee is looking into the feasibility of hiring one
person rather than the many separate house cleaners different households
are currently using.


We thought we might each specify how many hours a week we would be willing
to commit to use someone for, not just cleaning, but cooking privately,
cooking a common house meal we don’t feel up to doing, other needs.


At the moment nothing like personal home health care, but we think that
should be contemplated.


However, beyond considering free room and common meals as partial
compensation, we were unable to agree on the number of hours of total work
commitment the community might offer, and the hourly wage, that we would
need to provide to attract someone.  Or how to search.


We’re also concerned about liability issues, employment law issues, and
everything else we should be thinking about.


Any experience with this? Advice?


—Sarah Lesher

Cantine’s Island Cohousing, Saugerties, NY