Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Helping members with Covid-19 related hardship

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Hello David and all — I’m moved by your community’s initiation of and execution 
of this program.  I’m proposing it here at Takoma Village in Washington, DC.

Could you send me the documentation?  I want to start ASAP.

This is a generous act that highlights one of the ways in which cohousing is 
“out there” in community building.

If others of you take a leaf from Washignton Village please post your 
experiences in getting this started, maintaining it, and seeing where it goes 
in the future. 

Thank you for posting this, David.  As I said, I am moved and also invigorated 
by what you have created.

Please everyone share what you are doing beyond social distancing, 
disinfecting, etc. in the time of Coronavirus.  We want to hear.  I sure want 
to hear!

Don’t forget the CohoUS web chat series Tuesday night:  
https://cohousingassociationoftheunite.regfox.com/cohousing-and-the-coronavirus

Thanks, all!

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Member, Board of Directors
Mid Atlantic Cohousing
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
202.546.4654

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they 
know and then stop.
Mark Twain




> On Apr 7, 2020, at 5:03 PM, David Jaggar <davidjaggar [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> *Neighbors Helping Neighbors*
> 
> A little more than a week ago, a couple of people in Washington Village
> began discussing the COVID19 pandemic and how it might impact our
> community. Our Common House had been already been closed and we knew some
> members had already suffered losses in employment.
> 
> We realized the government would be sending out $1200 checks to all adults.
> While to many people this would be a necessary lifeline, for others it
> would be just extra cash. One member suggested asking for donations from
> the community to assist those who would be directly impacted.
> 
> The idea caught on and our community responded rapidly. We named the
> program *Neighbors Helping Neighbors. *Members rallied to make donations
> and we recruited volunteers to assist in the disbursement of funds.  Since
> we assumed a fair amount of money would be collected over time, we realized
> that members with accounting expertise would be necessary to act as a
> “bank”. One method of ensuring transparency and accountability is to keep
> our records open to donors for review. We also informed donors that
> donations would not be tax deductible since we did not have 501(c) 3 status
> as a non-profit.  For reasons of privacy, all donors and recipients are
> anonymous.
> 
> For recipients, we limited “need” to income loss such as job loss or
> furlough, reduced working hours or business closure as a direct result of
> the COVID-19 pandemic. Other sorts of financial emergencies are not
> eligible for grants. Then we urged community members impacted by the
> pandemic to apply for fixed sum $400 monthly grants to be used for HOA dues
> and mortgage relief as long as they were in need and the funds held out.
> 
> In a little more than a week from when the idea was first generated, we
> will have grants sent out to impacted members of the community who filled
> out a simple application.  If any other communities are interested in
> developing a similar program, we will be happy to discuss how we developed
> our program.
> 
> *We’re all in this together*
> 
> From Washington Village Community
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