RE: Why cohousing should not be mission driven to be affordable h | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Lashbrook, Stephan (lashbrookci.wilsonville.or.us) | |
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 2000 14:47:50 -0700 (MST) |
Rob: You write about cohousing the way some musicians talk about their specific genres of music -- like it can't be jazz if it's in 4/4 time. I disagree. Cohousing can be whatever we make it. It doesn't have to be about affordability, but I absolutely reject the notion that it has to be about middle and upper-class values. I work with housing developers of all kinds every day. Almost all of them want to focus on middle and upper-class markets. Let's not add cohousing to the list of options that are patently unavailable to an ever-growing segment of our population. You are a highly respected figure in the intentional community world. Please use that clout to advocate for affordable housing wherever you have the chance. Stephan -----Original Message----- From: Rob Sandelin [mailto:floriferous [at] msn.com] Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2000 7:14 AM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Why cohousing should not be mission driven to be affordable housing I disagree that it is, or should be, the mission of cohousing to provide affordable housing. Cohousing does provide a small amount of green and affordability and this is fine as is. No guilt accepted or needed. There are tons of other kinds of Intentional Communities which provide both green and affordable as their missions. Several in the NW are looking for members and can accessed at www.ic.org/nica. Cohousing is not a public service. It is an intentional community form designed specifically to be attractive to the middle and upper classes. The basic tenants of cohousing are that is non-religious, private income, new development, homeownership based. These are what makes cohousing attractive as a community type to the middle class, and also to the banks and other bureaucracies. To make cohousing affordable mission driven, in my opinion, would be such a huge burden that it would lead to the extinction of cohousing. The people that currently drive the development of it would opt out and cohousing development would stop. This is not to say that affordable cohousing should not exist. Its just not likely to expand much beyond perhaps a token 5-10% of built homes. The middle class people that drive cohousing do so to meet their own needs and desires, not to accomplish a mission. And this is OK. Affordability mission centered community work is great stuff and there are lots of organizations that do that work better. But it is not what drives cohousing developers. Cohousers are motivated to create a better life for themselves. Period. Anything else is secondary to that. It is not an accident that the vast majority of cohousing is market rate housing. It is that way because that is what the vast majority of cohousers seem to want it to be. They want their equity preserved if not accumulated. This is one of the very first questions potential cohousers ask, Can I sell my house? I would be delighted to see the Feds (or some .com gazillionaire) create a pool of money that cohousing groups could apply for affordability grants so some percentage of any cohousing project could be affordable. But until then, cohousing is a grassroots effort that is meeting the criteria of the banks quite nicely. And that is a miracle of itself. Most existing cohousing has been created in the face of hostile banks, local governments, etc. And still these middle class firebrands persevered and built multi-family developments. Groups of strangers volunteered hundreds of hours using cooperative processes, and put thousands of dollars of personal money at risk, in order to have more community for themselves and their children. That's not "progressive" it's RADICAL! And there are dozens of these places, and every year more and more come on line. Community building is great stuff. There are lots of niches for improving relationships between neighbors of all kinds and there is tons of work to do. So grab a shovel and start planting those seeds. Cohousing is just one of the packages the seeds come in. And if you expect cohousing to change dramatically from its current form, and become a mission centered community form to provide affordable housing, well, I think you are likely to be disappointed. Rob Sandelin Northwest Intentional Communities Association
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