Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Michael Barret's comment re creating restrictive fees for lower participation

[Stuart Joseph (stuart]

Alan,
I am also disabled and  your questions have also occurred to me.

I have come to the conclusion, and my group feels the same way, that 
participation may take many forms. I might not be able to do physical 
labor, unmaintained, gardening, etc., but I can do other things: taking 
care of the website, arranging things, office type tasks, finding deals 
for the group, making the calls and scheduling repairs, and other things 
that will occur to us as they appear. It is a matter of finding things 
that you are capable of doing and that your community needs.

IMHO, any group that has reservations about your joining them because of 
your disability and isn't willing to find a way for you to fulfill your 
obligation, even if it is outside the box, is a group that I wouldn't 
want to join.

I do feel that if something needs to be hired out because a person can't 
do it, or chooses not to do it, and they can't fulfill their part of 
what needs to be done, they should contribute monetarily to make up for 
my unwillingness to do it or that I can't find something else as a 
substitute. This might also apply to renters, or their landlords, that 
don't participate.

It seems to me that the fairest way of working these things out is by 
making a list of community needs and some type of time allotment 
required of the members (per week, per month, per year). They could then 
choose which they would like to work on and apply their hours as they 
completed the job.

This would also mean that they could bank their hours depending upon the 
time spent doing their chore and apply it against future tasks.

We are working really hard to make Caer Coburn friendly to people with 
disabilities and, as I pointed out, everyone understands my situation 
and the possibility that future and current members might also be in the 
same boat themselves as time goes by.

I do believe that there are a lot of communities that feel as we do and 
you should not give up on the idea of co-housing, it is just a matter of 
finding the right situation.

as a closing note, why don't you come look over Caer Coburn?

alwview [at] aol.com wrote:
> As a person with a disability, I've become rather concerned about the 
> feasibility of participating in cohousing.? While people sometimes seem 
> idealistic, one questions whether they are as altruistic.? If people's needs 
> change or they cannot contribute in the same ways, does that mean that?they are 
> to be undervalued?? How can?a person with a disability become part of a 
> community if they have to be concerned about resentment or tension from other 
> community members if they cannot contribute in exactly the same way?? Is 
> Michael suggesting that a person with a disability should be charged 5x as much 
> as a healthy individual because of the limitations of their disability?? Does 
> this mean that elderly whom may be less able to contribute (financially too), 
> would be charged more when they might least be able to afford it?? This doesn't 
> sound very utopian to me.
>
> Alan Weintraub
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--
Stuart Joseph, 802-463-1954
Project Director
Caer Coburn, a traditional village based upon cohousing  and intentional 
communities in
Rockingham, Vermont, USA
http://www.caercoburn.org
Mail to:
36 Front St.
Bellows Falls, VT 05101 USA