The FIC directory does a great job listing existing intentional communities, and we encourage founders groups to list there as soon as they have an established location. For those who may not yet be committed to a set community location, this page describes how to stay legal and fair with housing while finding like-minded community members.
ICmatch Is About Relationships First
Established intentional communities that advertise housing have to comply with Fair Housing Law. ICmatch is designed to serve a different purpose: helping new founders’ groups form, not advertising available housing. This distinction matters because some of the information exchanged in founder-matching (like wanting to be near others with kids of similar age) touches “familial status,” a federally protected category, and that information has to be handled separately from anything that could be read as a housing listing.
For example, a family that wants to form a small residential community with kids of similar age can use ICmatch to find others who want the same thing. Once the group has formed, they can establish residence together. The matching happens before there’s a housing transaction to regulate.
What Fair Housing Law Is Intended For
If you’re offering a rental apartment across town that you’ll have minimal contact with, it shouldn’t matter whether you personally like the prospective tenant. If they pass a credit check and their references are good, they should be accepted. Both parties have legal protections, and as long as everyone acts professionally, things go smoothly. The legally protected characteristics exist to create more equal opportunity. This framework makes the most sense when you aren’t living near or with the tenant. That’s a different situation than choosing someone to live in your own home or to interact with daily on shared projects.
Exemptions
The Fair Housing Act exempts several situations relevant to intentional communities:
- The Roommate Exemption: Federal courts (including the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals) have ruled the FHA does not apply to shared living roommate selection. Because a roommate has intimate access to your private life, you have a constitutional right to choose who you live with based on personal lifestyle, gender, or religious preference. [1]
- The Owner-occupied Exemption: If you live on the property and rent out individual rooms or units (up to four units total), you’re legally exempt from FHA anti-discrimination rules on who you choose to bring into the home. [1, 2, 3]
- Other exemptions: FHL does not apply to single-family houses sold or rented by the owner without an agent, but advertising restrictions still apply). FHL also exempts housing operated by religious organizations or private clubs limiting occupancy to members. [HUD]
Beyond the federal exemptions, there may be other legal exceptions available through local housing authorities. For example, retirement homes are exempt from age- and gender-discrimination laws. A nonprofit with a stated mandate to serve a particular group is also likely to have that preferential treatment hold up in court if challenged. If you have substantial assets to protect, seek legal help relevant to your jurisdiction to understand grey areas.
No Discriminatory Advertising, Regardless of Exemption
Advertising is never exempt, even when the underlying living situation is completely exempt from the FHA under the roommate or owner-occupied rules. You cannot post an advertisement stating a preference or restriction based on a federally protected class such as age, disability, religion, or sex. For a work-trade, it is permissible to advertise a needed capacity such as to “lift 50 pound bags” or be “capable of physical exertion including moving construction equipment outdoors in uncomfortable temperatures.”
When the Fair Housing Act Fully Applies
If the property is a separate, non-owner-occupied single-family home (e.g., a secondary property where you don’t reside), the FHA applies in full if you use a real estate agent or broker to find the person. Under full FHA coverage, you cannot refuse someone because of a disability, familial status (having children), or any other protected characteristic.
Being Honest Without Incriminating Language
If you’re looking for a housemate or roommate, compatibility matters. A religious renunciate craving a quiet, peaceful life isn’t likely to seek out a wild partier with lots of friends. Someone with young children will have a hard time with a collector of delicate figurines who displays them openly. Do each other a favor and speak the truth, as kindly as possible. No one has to say anything legally incriminating about religion or children to do this. The person offering housing could simply say, “I’m going to wait a week or two so I have a few applicants to choose from.”
Be realistic about what you can tolerate, too. If one person is allergic to cats and the other has five, you can name the real issue without hurting anyone’s feelings. If one is a neat-freak minimalist and the other a hoarder who feels too time-pressured to stay organized, there’s no need to make life harder than it already is. A simple “I don’t think this would work out” is enough.
Founder’s Groups
A founder’s group is not subject to discrimination laws if it’s objectively a friendship group and/or business partnership, not an employee relationship or a landlord/tenant relationship. Even if one or more ICmatch members owns property, the group might end up moving to a different property based on its needs. Don’t let fear of a few bad actors stop you from creating the community you envision. There’s no way to negate all lawsuit risk, but getting the group’s intentions and definition in writing before cohabiting minimizes the risk that a lawsuit would succeed.
Established Residential Intentional Communities
Once a community has actual shared housing or land, the legalities change. Established ICs do need to be careful to avoid discrimination. The best approach is to keep a waiting list and invite prospective members to events to get acquainted, so you never have to advertise a specific unit. It’s legal to advertise an invitation to an event intended to draw in members of a linguistic or ethnic group, just not a housing vacancy tied to protected-class preferences.
If you’re interested in joining an established community, there’s nothing stopping you from sharing your ICmatch profile link with people you’re interested in. That gives them useful information about what you offer and whether you’d be a good cultural or ideological fit. The legal risk only arises if the community itself asks for the protected-class information directly.
Work-Trade for Rent
An informal “room for labor” arrangement is regulated by a mix of civil rights, labor, and housing law, even when no rent money is exchanged. Whether the FHA governs selection of the individual depends entirely on where the person lives and how the opportunity is advertised. But bypassing housing-selection law doesn’t mean the arrangement is unregulated. A “housing for labor” deal activates other legal frameworks:
Landlord-Tenant Law: In most jurisdictions, the moment someone moves their belongings in and begins performing labor, they legally establish tenancy. If the arrangement sours, you cannot simply lock them out or remove them. You must go through a formal, state-regulated eviction process, which can take months. See the section Avoid Professional Tenants.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): The U.S. Department of Labor treats someone exchanging labor for housing as an employee. The fair market value of the housing must legally match or exceed local minimum wage and overtime requirements for the hours worked.
References
FHL https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title42/chapter45&edition=prelim
Work-trade https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/79g-flsa-shared-living