Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: membership question

[Kay Argyle (argyle]

There are a number of distinctions under our bylaws between home-owners and
tenants.  Most we deal with by more or less ignoring them.

One of the few we observe is that renters can't be elected to the Management
Committee, but even that we've found a way around, after we decided last
year renters' issues were being neglected.  The private-home renters and the
low-income housing tenants each elected a Rep to attend Management meetings
and provide that viewpoint -- or speak on other issues.  Given that we
operate by concensus, the reps have as much input as the formally elected
members, and have helped spread the workload.  This has worked well -- a
number of matters affecting tenants have been resolved satisfactorily.

Differences in the power structure arise more from social dynamics than
anything formalized.  Homeowners, on average, have lived here longer than
private-home renters, on average, and know the ropes and how to get things
accomplished. Some tenants have a mindset, fostered by poverty and
powerlessness, of being acted upon instead of acting. We're working on
creating feelings of empowerment.

The low-income tenants do have to qualify through the (federal) CROWN
program, but the local agency administering it understands our unique
situation and has been willing to work with us -- we locate somebody
interested in cohousing who probably qualifies, and send them to apply.

Kay

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