Fair Housing as Applied to Cohousing | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Munn Heydorn (munn![]() |
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Date: Tue, 24 Jan 95 23:48 CST |
On Mon, 23 Jan 95 11:34:35 PST, Rob Sandelin <robsan [at] microsoft.com> said, in part: -----snip----- >If you want specific sets of humanity, whether >they be parents, elderly, religous, or ethnic, how and where you >adverstise will determine who calls. It is NOT unreasonable to desire >a mixture of people and I have seen diversity listed as a goal of many >cohousing groups. Most other types of intentional communities have >very strict reviews about who becomes members and have very specific >criteria that prospective members must adhere by (in my experience this >seems to be true more of religous communities than others). For >example, a local religous commune requires members to have had a >certain religous experience before they can join as members. > >If a group decides it really wants <ethnic or other type of humanity >here> then it will advertise in places where <ethnic or other type of >humanity here> will find out about it. In the Seattle area there is a >group of mennonites who are forming their own cohousing sort of living >arrangement. Non-mennonites are not invited. -----snip----- I really don't know if special rules regarding fair housing laws (Hereafter "FH") apply to either cohousing in general (which I strongly doubt) or to religious communities such as the Mennonites' cohousing (which I don't know but seems more possible). To target families with children may be okay under FH since families without kids and singles are not protected classes under FH. Targeting certain groups to the exclusion of others, however, if those others are a protected class under FH (religion, race, country of origin, disability, etc.), clearly would be a violation if done by a developer. I suspect that the same rules apply to a group of people calling themselves the ABC Cohousing Group (Anyone wanting to appropriate this clever name is welcome to it) since they would appear collectively to the outside world to be a "developer". Not long ago, there was a lawsuit in the Chicago area by fair housing nonprofits against a number of home builders who, in their advertising consistantly and exclusively used white models. The builders lost (technically, they may have settled) the suit, as I understand it, based pretty much on just that fact. In fact, part of the penalty exacted was the financing of a brochure on FH advertising by the developers. Has anyone specifically looked into or researched FH as it applies to cohousing or other intentional communities? Regards, Munn Munn Heydorn, Winfield, IL munn [at] interaccess.com
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