How to build an intentional community
Deciding you're not going to end up in a nursing home
Journalists love to frame cohousing as an alternative to a nursing home. The New York Times recently had a blip of an article on “How to build an intentional community”:
Meredeen and her friend imagined a place where women could age together and not end up in a nursing home, alone, “dribbling in the corner”
So, what do you need to keep yourself and your friends out of a nursing home?
If you seek to build multiunit infrastructure and not just move in with roommates, you’ll most likely need a limited liability corporation, land, financing, architects and builders.
Members rotate among various tasks: finances, gardening, coronavirus sanitizing. Decisions are made by consensus during monthly meetings.
Younger members do the grocery shopping and prescription pickups.
I think they’re overlooking an important piece of the puzzle: the nursing.
The article describes the women who founded the Older Women’s Co-Housing Project as seeking to counter ageist stereotypes while still reinforcing them.
While I’m thrilled with the idea of a community that provides ample opportunities for people to share their talents with each other, I wonder if a woman who might find herself dribbling in the corner without the proper support would be allowed in this club.
Neighbors that care about each other make a difference, as does universal design.
But how strange it is to forget to mention care work in an article about an alternative to a nursing home.
Nursing homes provide support for people who require assistance with activities of daily living — things like bathing, toileting, dressing, and feeding.
If all the people in nursing homes needed was grocery delivery…well, things would be a lot simpler.
Maybe this guide, like Marilyn Dumont’s “How to Make Pemmican”, is meant to show us just how little we know.
It all sounds easy until you live it.