Re: Affordable Cohousing
From: Diana Stanley (lustylusty.org)
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2021 13:53:41 -0700 (PDT)
Diana,

The part of what Zev wrote that we are interested in is this:

>> goodness of fit questionnaire, attend an open house, a meal and a business
>> meeting so we can meet them and they can see what we are all about.

As I stated before, we have no interest in denying anyone, and we never have 
denied anyone. Our "goodness of fit questionnaire" is more like a "no-surprises 
checklist", and all the rest are just so the person can meet others in the 
community and find out what co-housing is all about. And we will not be writing 
anything into our governing documents without first getting approval from a 
real estate attorney who is knowledgeable about what we can and cannot ask 
prospective buyers to do.

Thanks,
Diana
Phoenix Commons, Oakland, CA

> On Apr 19, 2021, at 1:43 PM, Diana Carroll <dianaecarroll [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> Diana: What Zev describes is *extremely unusual *and would generally be
> illegal. There must be some legal loophole or workaround here related to
> the city's affordability program that allows them to screen potential
> buyers that way. Even if there is some loophole that allows this not be be
> a violation of the equal housing laws, I would not suggest doing this --
> for me, on principle, this is a bad thing. Once you start evaluating people
> for "fit", you are introducing the sort of subjective judgements that lead
> to racism, ableism, etc.  As much as in your heart you may not want to do
> this, or be that person, unconscious bias is a thing. I'm honestly shocked
> to hear cohousing doing this or endorsing it. :(
> 
> diana Carroll
> Mosaic Commons, central MA
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Apr 19, 2021 at 4:09 PM Diana Stanley <lusty [at] lusty.org> wrote:
> 
>> Zev,
>> 
>> Is this process written into your governing documents? Was it vetted by a
>> real estate attorney? Would you be willing to share the parts of your
>> governing documents that outline this process? Does it only apply because
>> the applicants are buying below-market-rate properties?
>> 
>> My community is currently struggling with what sort of processes we can
>> write into our governing documents to achieve exactly the process you
>> describe for prospective new members of the community. We don't actually
>> deny anyone, however we want to require all of them to go through all the
>> steps you describe, so they and we are certain they know what they're
>> buying into.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Diana
>> Phoenix Commons, Oakland, CA
>> 
>>> On Apr 19, 2021, at 11:11 AM, Zev Paiss <zevpaiss [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Dear Ann,
>>> 
>>> Buyers pre-qualify with the City affordable housing program and get
>> pre-approved by a lender as part of that process.
>>> 
>>> Before COVID our community required that all applicants complete a
>> goodness of fit questionnaire, attend an open house, a meal and a business
>> meeting so we can meet them and they can see what we are all about. A small
>> committee of 4-6 people whittle down the pool of qualified applicants to a
>> small handful and then pass them along to the seller to make the final
>> decision.
>>> 
>>> Zev Paiss
>>> Nomad Community Room Coordinator
>>> 1410 Quince Avenue, Boulder CO 80304
>>> 720-925-5161
>>> 
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>> 
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