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

[Marganne Meyer (marganne]

At 1:04 AM -0500 1/22/10, Jan DeKenis wrote:
> I would add that older adults also can be excluded.  It's hard to get
> a mortgage if one's retired and can't tie up a good portion of one'
> assets by owning outright.

I'm sorry to have to single you out, Jan, on the statement above. 
Assuming all older adults are in the situation you describe and can't 
afford entry into cohousing as it currently exists ... it's just not 
true. It is an example of how many well-meaning people still hold 
onto stereotypes, thus missing the opportunity to interact with a 
growing proportion of today's population.

Please excuse me if I haven't articulated this very well. It's not 
meant as a criticism. We ALL carry around unconscious bias that 
doesn't become apparent until we are in a particular situation.

Cheers!
Marganne