RE: Affordable Cohousing | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com) | |
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 95 16:24 CST |
Dan Suchman asked: >I'd love to hear from readers that have a different perspective, or know of >other means of creating affordable cohousing in the US. There are dozens of examples of affordable housing, created entirely without subsidy around Washington State Dan. The Love Israel community, Teramanto, Wesleyian Community, Windward, Walker Creek farm,are a few communities that come to mind that all provide housing for very low income people. These are all member developed intentional communities. Many of them are communes or coops, which were formed by a group pooling its resources and working together. Granted, they are not state of the art, condo units with giant common houses, but they get by, share community meals, and run very sustainable lifestyles, much more so than most Cohousing communities do. Typically they form around a philosophy or ideal and that is the glue that binds them together. They often work together in a community business and share the income from that business. The Israel community for example raises high quality greens for resteraunt markets and does environmentally sensitive land clearing and development. For details of these types of places I highly recommend Communities Magazine, available in many bookstores. Also the Northwest Intentional Communities association meets monthly in Seattle and will hold their annual meeting at Sharingwood this year. I welcome you to attend. The contact person for the Fellowship of Intentional Community, a national communities networking group, lives on Whidbey Island. I just got off the phone with a communal household in Seattle, where four lower income families formed a partnership and bought a house on Queen Ann hill and live together, share cars, and meals. There are dozens of households just like it around Seattle, Portland, Salem, Eugene. These cooperative households are springing up like mushrooms as the price and burdens of homeownership continue to go up. I have a friend who has been teaching for 5 years and could never own a home on her own. Instead, she is joining forces with 3 other teachers to form a partnership to buy. There is a organization forming in Seattle, out of the Puget Sound Coop Federation, which is organizing a coop house service to help people join together in home ownership. There are also land trusts such as Opal community, or the one in Laconner which had their land paid for by government programs and are resident designed and developed for low income members. So lots of places are doing low income housing with and without subsidy and quietly working and living a sustainable lifestyle, far from the everyday roar of the consumer culture madness. I suspect that one of these days, when the time is right, I'll join one or start one. Rob Sandelin Treasurer and newsletter editor Northwest Intentional Communities Association Only $5 for Community Resources Newsletter 22020 East Lost Lake Rd. Snohomish, WA 98290
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Affordable Cohousing Dan Suchman, March 14 1995
- Re: Affordable Cohousing Frank Boosman, March 15 1995
- RE: Affordable Cohousing Rob Sandelin, March 15 1995
- Affordable Cohousing Dan Suchman, March 15 1995
- Re: Affordable Cohousing Gerald Rioux, March 16 1995
- Re: Affordable cohousing David L. Mandel, March 16 1995
- Re: Affordable Cohousing Mark Frauenglass, March 16 1995
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