Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Fair Housing Act and community desires for "diversity"

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Aug 10, 2015, at 12:34 PM, Sue STIGLEMAN <sstigleman [at] bellsouth.net> 
> wrote:
> 
>  Cohousing communities often want to do things like encourage young families 
> with children, when the people who are most likely to be able to afford to 
> move in are older retired people, or they want to encourage other forms of 
> "diversity”.  

I thought this was well written — not too long and very clear. I would add that 
this includes casual comments by members who are not even involved in the 
process. In one case reported by the CAI, when a couple was getting in their 
car to leave a member standing near by said, “We can’t handle another person 
with_____." I don’t remember what the situation was but it made the condo 
liable for charges of violation of the fair housing law.

The law also doesn’t mean you can have no preferences when selling. It just 
can’t be on the basis of race, religion, sex, children, etc. Understanding of 
the expectations of cohousing has nothing to do with the "protected classes.”

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org