Cohousing-L Mailing List: Can We “screen” future Cohousing members

[Zev Paiss (zevpaiss]

Fair housing laws in the US provide many protections for home buyers. There are 
many questions we are not allowed to ask to a potential buyer. Here at tiny 
Nonad in Boulder Colorado we discovered  how helpless we were when a resident 
started to become extremely erratic in their actions and interactions. Since we 
are not structured as a coop where members vote new members in and out, we had 
no ability to protect our community until the person was deemed a threat to 
themselves or others. This ongoing struggles went in for two years with 
constant disruptions to our meetings and meals, regular novella length notes on 
our bulk item board and attempted to help with shopping, bill paying and even 
mediation with the city to no avail. If there are ways to set up numerous 
opportunities for interaction among new neighbors please try to do that to help 
minimize bringing in neighbors who have the inadvertent ability to make life in 
community even more challenging.

Zev Paiss
Boulder, CO
720-925-5161