Re: USA Today Article on Silver Sage and Senior Cohousing
From: Chili Head (chiliheadramptonresearch.com)
Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 06:30:54 -0700 (PDT)

On May 4, 2009, at 2:08 PM, Craig Ragland wrote:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2009-05-03-co-housing_N.htm

This article allows both Comments and Comment "recommends" - very few
of the comments show any understanding of cohousing. I'd urge anybody
reading this to consider visiting the article and either adding useful
comments or clicking the "Recommend" button next to comments you feel
are useful.


Hello! I'm a newbie to the list, as well as a complete newbie to coho. I do hope that it's OK to post to the list, if not already involved in a community of any kind -- but wanting to learn/understand more.

Please forgive if the following is too much information ...

My husband and I are aging Baby Boomers, and perhaps a bit further down the path than many our same ages (60 and 52), due to a stroke (hubby) and a brain tumor (me). I read the USA TODAY article, and was appalled at what so many seem to think of older people. "We" are slightly disabled and slowed down, but still very active and independent. However, dealing with long-term illness in our home has led to social isolation, as well as financial ruin, despite us both, at one time, having been in professional jobs earning high salaries. My husband is on social security disability (half the normal amount, as the stroke happened partway through his working life), and I still work freelance in my profession -- none of which can begin to cover our medical insurance and costs. We still consider ourselves to be bright, vibrant and interesting people, and feel like the idea of community has long perished in the American neighborhood.

However, I am discouraged by much that I have read about cohousing, and whether or not we could ever find a place for ourselves in such a community.

For one, from the above article, "There are only three senior co- housing developments in the USA." We actually do not "require" living in a senior community, being quite broad in terms of the ages of others we enjoy being around. However, we do think that we might have more in common with others who are, perhaps, not necessarily on the fast track in terms of careers and raising children. But it would seem that senior-oriented communities are few and far between.

The second discouragement is that it seems that cohousing situations MOSTLY (yes, I seem to have come a cross a few exceptions) are condos or homes, which require investment. Let's just say that the stroke and tumor have pretty much tapped us out. When we leave the home we "own" (which I put deliberately in quotes), we'll be lucky if we don't have to declare bankruptcy at the same time. The tanking of the housing market has left us with virtually nothing, as our home was the last bit of investment we had.

So, please, this is not a "feel sorry for poor us" missive (though we are, in fact, "poor" -- LOL). But I am seeking answers and alternatives to hopefully finding a community sometime in the next year or two, where we might live in a community environment, but as RENTERS. I have to believe that we are only the tip of the iceberg, in terms of people who will be needing and seeking out similar living situations, but just do not have the resources -- often due to medical costs -- to "buy in" to anything. We would even consider trying to start up a community on our own, but would have no idea how to seek funding -- and since none of the funding can actually come from us.

Hope I have not gone on too long. Please just let me know, frankly, if this is not the place to search out the type of information we are seeking.

>> Isolated in Indiana



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