Re: Affordable Cohousing
From: oz (ozozragland.com)
Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2013 09:57:28 -0800 (PST)
In the coho-traveling I've done, I've been most impressed by the creative,
low-cost solutions that retrofit cohousing groups have adopted to lower
their costs.

Songaia Cohousing is a mix of old and new - we built 5 new duplexes,
remodeled a small 1920s house into a duplex of two small homes, and
retrofitted a very large 1960s single-family home to serve as our common
house and an attached cohousing home.

As a retrofit, our common house is very different from the more
conventional, new-built common house found in many new-built communities
sport. Ours does NOT sport a grand, two-story entry area, or a beautiful
sitting area next to the dining room with a fireplace between, or
commercial kitchen. It does, however, enjoy very heavy use by many people
who have come to love working and playing and living together. Its also
been home for many community events over the years, including Coho/US and
FIC face-to-face board meetings (2) and a dinner for the 2009 International
Cohousing Summit.

This type of vibrant, active community life has attracted a steady stream
of people wanting to participate in our community... and with so little
turn-over, all but one of our homes sold instantly... to our associates or
members.

On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 8:58 AM, Jenny Guy <jenstermeister [at] gmail.com> wrote:

>
> It's much, much cheaper for us than new construction. We have all had to
> put in a big down payment, so our model wouldn't work for people who didn't
> have that, unless the community had more members at the time of purchase.
> This is working for some of us with a chunk of money from an inheritance or
> selling a house, but very low income (way below what qualifies you for
> affordable housing around here).
>

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