Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Is communal ownership obligatory for cohousing?

[Casey Morrigan (cjmorr]

Brian, 

Is it important to know whether it's cohousing? I fall into the "call it
what you'd like" camp, so want to encourage you in creating and enjoying
your neighborhood no matter what you decide to call it.

Casey

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Bartholomew [mailto:bb [at] stat.ufl.edu] 
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 1:36 PM
To: Cohousing-L
Subject: [C-L]_ Is communal ownership obligatory for cohousing?

I'm trying to figure out if the intentional neighborhood we're trying to
build should be labeled a cohousing.

In the view of the cohousing movement, is a "common" facility identified as
such because it has shared *ownership*, or shared *use*?
Is collective ownership of property so central to cohousing that a group
isn't cohousing without it?

I'm reading through "The six defining characteristics of cohousing".
For #3 we plan to share the use of meeting halls, workshops, gardens, and
woods, but we don't plan to share the ownership of them.  For #4 there are
no policies for the community, because the authority is not delegated to
anyone to make them.  However, we can still act alike if we want to.  For #5
no one person (or persons) has authority over others, because there is no
shared ownership of real property, HOA, or other authorization of such
authority.  Group decisions are made by consensus, and it's the real thing
because there is no majority vote or other trump hidden anywhere in the
process.

                                                        Brian
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