Soteria is a home.
Explained in the piece is what people do when psychiatric hospitals are closed and there is no place left to go.
Hope Family Village is similar to Soteria Shelter Home in that we don’t have a place, yet. We meet monthly at a restaurant.
A W&M MBA Corporate Field Consultancy project team is researching and studying a co-housing approach and possible location for a project.
In this recent article (1/18/17), we see proposed legislation that responds to a constituency need to preserve home values and ensure neighborhood safety out of a fear for the arrival of a group home.
If one googles group homes, which are licensed by states, most newspapers articles will discuss the need for notification, regulation and oversight. After reading them, it will become quickly apparent that living together in a home is rather difficult.
Moreover, does anyone want to live a neighborhood where they are under surveillance? Isn’t that what most of us want to avoid?
Sure, we want people to look out for us. We would want people to look out for each other. We would want to live in a neighborhood where we would do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
If we are closing permanent, chronic health care facilities, coming up with criteria for evaluating a group home, we leave no place to go, other than to live quietly in a family home, on the streets, or in jail.
Shelter is a basic human need. We must find it. Human connection and support is another basic need. In all cases, if it is not provided, it must be created.