Re: Co housing for the working class
From: Christopher Moss (chrissaveonsolar.com)
Date: Wed, 6 Mar 2002 14:30:05 -0700 (MST)
Randa,

Do you know if Mr. Friedman incorporated solar energy into these homes
giving them an off-grid application?

* Does he have a web site?

Thanks !

Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Randa Johnson" <Saranda [at] sarc.org>
To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 9:35 AM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Co housing for the working class


You migt also want to look into the Grow Home and Next Home concept,
developed by Avi Friedman, a professor of architecture in Canada.  He has
developed a model for inexpensive, energy efficient housing that has been
extensively used in Canada.  These  homes cost 60-100,000$ Canadian ( maybe
around $40-70,000 US), and are designed to allow for easy remodeling to
accomodate changing household structure.

>>> "Robert Waldrop" <rmwj [at] soonernet.com> 03/05 6:10 PM >>>
Thanks for this and the other responses, including a number of private
emails, I have received.  Here is the idea I have in mind.

In the late 1970s, Oklahoma City "urban renewalled" a neighborhood
right next to downtown called the Deep Deuce. It was the original
African American section of town (where they were legally required to
live during jim crow segregation), and foolishly, the City Council
forced eveyrbody to sell to the city and tore the neighborhood down.
Meanwhile, the oil market went south and so did Oklahoma City's
economy and here we are more than 20 years later, and it is still a
weedy patch of open ground where thousands of people once lived.

What if the city made this available to construct a series of co
housing cooperative neighborhoods via the Habitat for Humanity
program?  That organization might not be interested, but its
successful principles could be used by a new local organization if
that was the case.

I think I've read somewhere that some Habitat for Humanity homes were
being constructed using some advanced sustainability features like
ultra efficient appliances and lots of insulation and weatherization.
Such energy conservation features could be incorporated into the
project  I can also see a network of community gardens and a useful,
as well as attractive permacultured landscape.

Well anyway, that's this week's crazy idea.  Why wouldn't it work,
though?  There might be a line to get into a neighborhood like that.
And it seems to me that it is not beyond belief that foundations would
be interested in helping a project like that.  Plus it takes advantage
of something that working class folks can easily contribute:  sweat
equity, leveraged by volunteer support.

Thanks for listening.  But if anybody has some ideas about this, let's
talk about them. If this is a departure from the focus of this list,
or if it goes over ground that has been trod so much before it would
be tedious, I can start a yahoo group or something to focus on this
issue.

 I may write Habitat for Humanity here in OKC a letter about this, but
I'd like to have some feedback first.

Robert Waldrop, Oklahoma City
http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/oklahoma.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Sandelin <floriferous [at] msn.com>
>Cohousing is based on private home ownership. So if you want to own a
home
>you have to be able to make a mortgage (10% down and high monthly
payments)
>or you have to be subsidized in some way.  There are a number of
cohousing
>projects which have been able to get money to subsidize some or all
of the
>unit owners. But it takes dedication and work, nobody will do it for
you.
>Some cohousing groups allow for rentals which makes space for
non-owners,
>and a few places have even set up coops within cohousing, where 3-4
people
>co-own a cohousing unit together.


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