Cohousing-L Mailing List: Building diversity

[Paul B. Chen (pzbc]

On 3/3, Rob Sandelin wrote: 

>I did once get an earful from a woman who was a lesbian, who had a place in 
>the line of a group, and who got bumped because the group said, we want 
>someone with kids........She took it as discrimination. She called me as to 
>advice about her "rights" and  I was able to talk her out of a lawsuit, 
>although she may never have followed through with that anyway.

We of East Lake Commons, a project in Atlanta that is just getting to the 
design stage (land has been purchased), find ourselves in a position of 
needing to work for diversity.  In particular, we are interested in 
attracting members of the African-American community and families with 
children.  Two questions for the group:

1) Would anyone with experience in trying to build diversity share with 
us your successes, failures, and advice?

2) In the situation Rob relates above, our understanding of the law is 
that the action that was taken is illegal.  Is this everyone else's 
understanding?  And if not, what exactly can a cohousing group do within 
the bounds of the law to build diversity?

Thanks in advance for any comments and suggestions y'all have to offer.



Paul B. Chen
pbchen [at] mindspring.com 

East Lake Commons - a cohousing/ecovillage of 67 units in two communities 
on 17 acres of urban land just minutes from downtown Atlanta.