Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: affordable cohousing, not "gated"

[Marganne Meyer (marganne]

At 8:17 PM -0800 1/21/10, Rob Sandelin wrote:
> There are other
> forms of community which are not based on home ownership and many have very
> little investment requirements.  One downside to this is that these can
> attract people who are highly dysfunctional and thus the community can end
> up spending inordinate amounts of energy dealing with social pathology,
> something cohousing, with its economic barriers is largely free from. The
> obvious downside to the economic gate keeping of mortgages is that it
> excludes some excellent people, especially younger adults.

Rob,
I think I understand what you tried to say in the above paragraph. 
Many highly dysfunctional people can afford to buy a home within an 
existing project. I've read stories here that attest to this and the 
problems it can cause for the community. A person's income doesn't 
have a bearing upon a person's mental health.

Anyone, regardless of their upbringing and ability to generate 
income, is only a step away from becoming a person without a job, 
without much economic support, and/or disabled. Nothing is guaranteed 
in this life, as many, many people have found out in the past few 
years with the economic downturn. A person never plans to become 
seriously ill and disabled in their 30s or 40s. I'm here to attest it 
does happen, a lot. Guess I'm a little sensitive to this issue since 
I've lived on both sides of the situation.

Cheers!
Marganne