Legal Issues.  Senior Cohousing presents an interesting legal issue because such communities seek to limit the population to adults, i.e., to exclude children (under the age of 18) from permanent residency.  On the face of it, such restrictions would appear to violate Federal law which prohibits discrimination on the basis of "familial status" (the presence or anticipated presence of children under 18 in a household).

Familial Status Issue -- Age 55+.  Federal law on the subject starts with the Civil Rights Act of 1968.  Title VIII of that Act is known as the Fair Housing Act.  The Act originally prohibited discrimination in selling or renting real estate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (gender) or national origin.  The Act was amended in 1988 to further prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and familial status (the presence or anticipated presence -- i.e., due to pregnancy -- of children under 18).  

Last year Americans drove 5 billion miles caring for seniors in their homes (Meals on Wheels, Whistle Stop Nurses, and so on). In our small, semi-rural county in the Sierra foothills, Telecare made 60,000 trips in massive, lumbering, polluting vans-buses – usually carrying only one senior at a time – schlepping a couple thousand seniors total over hill and dale to doctor’s appointments, to pick up medicine, or to see friends. In our cohousing community of 21 seniors, I have never seen a single Telecare bus in the driveway. In cohousing it happens organically by caring neighbors: “Can I catch a ride with you?”; “Are you headed to the drug store?”, etc. And this alternative is much more fun and inexpensive for all involved, and much less damaging to the environment. Wolf Creek Lodge, a new senior cohousing community about to start construction, has 30 units to be built on 1 acre within walking distance of downtown Grass Valley, population 12,000.

An acquaintance of mine, Chris Zimmerman, owns and operates a couple of assisted-care facilities in Alameda, California. He inherited one at age 23 and subsequently built a second one. He’s now 60, and despite the limitations of an assisted care environment, he has developed astute theories about seniors and elders.

Like many observers of the cultural scene, he agrees that seniors today are given little respect, but he also believes that they have to earn the respect that they’d like to command. He argues that seniors have abdicated their role as respected elders. Being an elder once meant earning respect by playing an active role in teaching younger generations, a role that’s seldom fulfilled today. He believes that seniors earn elderhood by helping younger generations understand how to be accountable.