Affordability
From: vbradova (vbradovabestweb.net)
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 08:21:35 -0600 (MDT)
>John Solso says "I believe cohousing can be well-designed, sweat-equity, 
>no-frills,
no-developer and low-cost."  GREAT.  Tell how busy working people can be 
involved
too.  In case you're going to tell me they need to quit their jobs, please 
don't.
Tell me how the typical single working parent can
be involved in creating cohousing in the current model of taking 5 years plus
to build, inflating the costs of the units.>

I think that streamlining and speeding up the process would help a lot. I read
that hiring a developer can not only shorten the process and so save money that
way, but also cuts down on the mistakes made (by amateurs) which can be 
expensive.
Another thing is spending a lot of money on customization -- I have been reading
about many communities that succumb to the temptation to line up for lot of
custom options, and this adds to costs tremendously. Again, a developer can
set useful limits. As for sweat equity, I am for some, but if you rely on this
in a major way, you risk overburdening people. Some community I recently read
about did a lot and then were so burned out and exhausted it took them 2 years
after move in to start organizing community activities. That seems like a bad
trade-off... And intergenerational communities with a sizeable elder membership
cannot expect these folks to bust their gut on construction.
And of course my favorite pet peeve -- cut the meetings to a minimum so that
people who work can participate while still having a life outside of 
cohousing...!


Vera, NY

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