You're right, vetting would be necessary. Dorms work because the population is (generally speaking) in the same age cohort and stage of their lives, there for a common purpose, and they have skin in the game i.e. they risk their tuition and completion of their degree if they don't abide by the rules. That's the other thing, students sign on to a code of conduct and are held to account by staff and volunteers. An adult dorm would work but it would need to follow a similar setup.

And most importantly, people move out of dorms eventually.

Even if there is a troublemaker people can't get rid of, they'll graduate sooner or later and will be forced to move out.

Perhaps cohousing, or coliving?

You're stepping closer to the concept of a company town. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_town

> A company town is a place where practically all stores and housing are owned by the one company that is also the main employer.

I'm not familiar with varying types, but AFAIU (or hope), the organizer / owner is not usually the main employer. It's foremost a community where people live. Some people work there or self-employ, but it's not usually a corporate-dictated, top-down governed establishment, which would be something quite different. At least in the examples I know of.

Not if it's organized as a corporation where all of the residents are voting shareholders. That's generally the model that most cohousing and intentional communities tend towards.

That's a good observation. It suggests that the adult dorm could work if they all, say, worked at the same company.

If only you'd suggested that :)