Re: How do communities deal with members who can't pay their condo fees or assessments?
From: Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizmgmail.com)
Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2016 11:05:45 -0800 (PST)
yea, sure. in a perfect world I agree. but in a perfect world everyone can 
afford the fees, too.

What we wanted was to make fees sliding scale. Turns out you can't legally do 
that with HOA fees. But you can say HOA is just water, septic, sewer, reserves, 
and plowing.

So what we gained is about $100 per month flexibility in our costs. 
Worth it to me.

 
-Liz
(The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
www.ecclesiaministriesmission.org
www.mosaic-commons.org
508-450-0431




On Feb 12, 2016, at 1:43 PM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> 
wrote:

> 
> 
>> On Feb 12, 2016, at 1:02 PM, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>> So its a small benefit...but enough to make it so that people's frustrations 
>> over the increases in the absolutely necessary items can be balanced with 
>> the decision for some households to spend less on the "optional" items 
>> without requiring that we go without any option items.
> 
> Many people here also define things as “absolutely necessary” and “extra.” In 
> cohousing, I don’t know how you do this. I believe it’s all the same ball of 
> wax or it isn’t cohousing.
> 
> For example, the commonhouse isn’t “necessary.” All the activities contribute 
> to the value of individual units. 
> 
> The wear and tear on the CH is as much due to “extras” as to “necessary” to 
> maintain values. Why aren’t those cohousing costs — 50% of repairs and 
> maintenance of the CH, for example are “extras.”
> 
> It seems that when we start talking this way, people discount the importance 
> of budgeting money to provide part of an otherwise potluck meal. Or songbooks 
> for group sings. Or furniture for the kids room since not everyone has kids. 
> 
> For years we only had Thrift Shop or hand-me-down furniture in the 
> guestrooms. The photos I took during a stay at Cornerstone cohousing finally 
> tipped the balance to purchasing new things that were the right scale for the 
> relatively small guest rooms. Oddly, some of the accepted hand-me-downs were 
> being donated because they were too large for people’s units. The rooms now 
> look much more spacious. The new furniture is white and light Birch which 
> helps enormously. No dark wood.
> 
> The feeling of spaciousness expands to not making divisions between what is 
> necessary and what is extra. It’s all based on what we want the community to 
> be or do. We have the conversation over again whenever there is an unexpected 
> expense but the result is always the same. It’s all cohousing.
> 
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
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