Affordable Cohousing
From: Dan Suchman (71756.2661compuserve.com)
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 95 12:18 CST
On March 13, 1995, John Reuer wrote:

Quote: ==================================================

I'm a graduate student in the McGill School of Architecture and I'm
writing a thesis on improving the affordabillity of cohousing. From
my reading and conversations with a few cohousers, I've compiled a
list of communities which have included or will include affordable units
in their development:

N Street   Muir Commons   Southside Park    Common Ground
Pioneer Valley    Ongoing Concerns    Puget Ridge     Kennebec Valley
Pacifica

At this point my working definition of an affordable unit means that
monthly mortgage payments are less than 25% of the monthly income
of a household making less than 80% of the local median income.

I would appreciate hearing from/about communities I should have
included, but didn't, or ones I did include, but shouldn't have.
Any comments on the affordability of cohousing are also welcome.

End quote. ===============================================

John, I suggest that one major impediment to creating affordable cohousing in
the US is the lack of private or government subsidies.  It is my understanding
that in Denmark and other more socialist countries (including, perhaps, Canada?)
the government provides various forms of financial aid to those in need of
affordable housing.  This aid can take many forms, including government subsidy
of land purchases and/or construction costs, government loan guaranties,
government loan interest subsidies and direct payments of money to the
applicant. The only major sources of such funding available in the US to those
above the government definition of poverty seem to be FHA and VA loan programs.
However, I am not aware of any cohousing projects that have met the rigorous
qualifying requirements for these programs.  [Readers: please advise me of any
US cohousing communities that have qualified for such programs]

Another possible way of creating affordable cohousing would be to seek private
subsidies from organizations such as Habitat for Humanity.  I don't know whether
Habitat or similar organizations are currently considering cohousing.  It seems
to me that a cohousing community that is occupied almost exclusively by those
living near the poverty the line might have some problems sustaining itself.  In
my opinion and experience, self-management, which is an essential element of
cohousing, requires residents to have at lease some discretionary time and/or
money to commit to the task.  It also requires residents to have relatively good
communication skills (I am assuming, perhaps erroneously, that education tends
to be in short supply among those who would qualify for such low-cost housing).
Moderate cost housing might not have these problems.  However, it probably would
not qualify for assistance from private charitable organizations.

I think most cohousers would agree that those needing affordable housing would
best be served by a community having a diverse socio-economic profile.  (I'll
leave to someone else the question of whether the community as a whole would be
served by this arrangement.)  To accomplish such a mix would probably require
government or privately subsidized loan programs, which do not currently exist.
I suspect that the most of the existing affordable cohousing in the US has been
creating by one of the following methods:  (1) government coerced subsidy by the
developer (e.g., requiring the developer to build a certain amount of affordable
housing as a condition to building other market rate units),  (2) direct or
indirect subsidy by the wealthier residents of the community (such as having the
community as a whole own a few rental units), or (3) rental units made available
(usually at a financial loss) by absentee owners.  The latter two forms of
subsidies are much less diffuse than would be government or institutional
subsidies, thereby placing a larger burden on individual contributors/donors.
As such, I do not expect that form of subsidy will ever become widespread.  The
government coerced subsidy by developers seems the most promising of the
"private" routes, however it does not necessarily result in cohousing.

I suspect that as cohousing becomes better known and more evolved in this
country, we may eventually have both the political clout and track record needed
to lobby the state and government successfully for subsidies that will make
cohousing more readily available to those in need of more affordable housing.

I'd love to hear from readers that have a different perspective, or know of
other means of creating affordable cohousing in the US.

Dan Suchman
Winslow Cohousing Group
Bainbridge Island, WA

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