Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Background Checks

[Dick Margulis (dick]

On 2/27/2022 9:55 AM, Zev Paiss wrote:
> I wonder if ther is a way to find out if the prospective neighbor is taking 
> medications that if stoped would make then unfit to be part of the community?

Probably in North Korea. Possibly in China or Iran. Not in the United 
States.

Living in society entails risks. So does living outside of society, 
although the risks are different. We all weigh our choices. I suspect 
that on balance cohousing mitigates a lot of risks, not least because it 
provides the kind of social environment that gives someone a reason to 
keep taking their meds. If you moved into a conventional condo, you 
might discover, as a result of a fire in your building, that your 
neighbor had a meth lab in their unit. Or you might get a bullet through 
your wall in the course of a no-knock police raid next door. Or your 
neighbor on the other side might stop taking their meds, and you'd have 
had no social interaction with them at all.

I'm sorry you did not have a mechanism in place that would have made 
that situation more manageable. But excluding someone from housing 
because of a medical condition isn't the solution.

Dick Margulis
in limbo with Rocky Corner