Sections:

--- Why getting along with Neighbors matters
--- Airbnb, guests paying to stay a few nights
--- a story about the impact of neighbors filing complaints

--- Why getting along with Neighbors matters

Getting along with your neighbors can make a difference between having or not having an intentional community or house sharing.

It is usually a neighbor or former upset resident filing complaint with the housing department that results in groups getting investigated and accused of zoning violations.

The process of fighting the city/town housing authority in court can be costly and expensive. This can easily involve having the vacate rooms and or houses for months while you fight the charges in court.

I suggest exploring these two things.

What are the current local city housing law zoning requirements. If a house is zoned, three apartments how many kitchens are the local authorities requiring and what constitutes a kitchen ? How many bathrooms and living rooms are required?

Do the authorities support or agree with the way you do things ?

--- Airbnb, guests paying to stay a few nights

Since many cities tax Airbnb style rentals they are aggressively searching for people doing Airbnb activities without paying the local taxes.

One response is to create a room that is legally Airbnb. Then you can advertise, pay people to manage it and people can use it as a way to get to know your community or do something else.

If your group wants to have many guests I suggest that you do not look or act like a hotel or Airbnb.

Ways to look like an illegal hotel Airbnb

-- advertise on a website or public place people can stay at your place for a fee or donation

-- charge a consistent rate per night or for a week

-- have people you don't know stay overnight then claim you get to know them by them staying overnight

-- pay people to clean and prepare room(s) for guests

-- record or track income from room fees or donations, depend on that income to cover expenses.

Ways to look different, hopefully prevent legal costs.

-- no advertisements on website or public places about staying overnight.

-- a current number must host the guest be responsible to clean room before and after guest leave

-- for expanding past current members family and friends

-- can advertise an in person and or online gathering, probably about explaining your intentional community

-- at the end of the gathering, after people have some idea about your intentional community, offer another track /meeting for those who want to explore some form of membership.

-- the membership track/exploration is less about community philosophy and more about members and nonmembers getting to know each other. The intentional community philosophy purpose is the starting point for exploring compatibility, nonmembers and members getting to know each other.

then a member may decide to host a nonmember to stay overnight

-- when a nonmember stays overnight consider having activities or meetings for the non-member and community to get to know each other.

--- a story about the impact of neighbors filing complaints

I heard of about a community that had really low rent.

They got into a fight with one of the neighbors over noise or property appearance or something.

The neighbor reported them to the housing authority which resulted in an investigation.

The city ordered them to vacate two rooms in the house, immediately because those rooms/space was illegal to rent. They also had fines to pay. They had to raise rents to pay costs. which meant they were now charging market rate.

So some people moved out and those who could pay the higher rate moved in. Essentially the low income community was wiped out and replaced with a higher income community within a couple years.