Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing for mobility-limited people

[Bob Morrison (morrison]

On or before Mon, 14 Aug 1995, wisdom [at] pobox.upenn.edu ('Judith Wisdom) 
wrote:

> My mobility is a 
> bit limited often and, also, although most of my life I was perfectly 
> mobile and worked and went to school and did lots of other things, I now 
> have to stay at home, working at a new career (as a ghostwriter and 
> editor) and writing.  Having activities very nearby and neighbors nearby 
> would afford me the opportunity to interact and socialize that I now 
> have only with friends who, because they don't live close, I don't see 
> often enough.  I would hope and assume in coho the seeing, even the 
> casual hello from close people, would happen daily...

  You have raised an issue that very few people have talked about here, and
that we need to talk about. That is the need to accommodate people who are
what I call "transport-limited". This includes both people who have diffi-
culty walking and the overlapping population of people who, for various
reasons, can't or don't drive. 
  I don't have this problem myself, but I have had second-hand experience with
both problems, and I can attest that it is very isolating. It's also true that
people in this situation are usually not prosperous and therefore can't afford
to live in newly constructed market-rate housing, which includes many cohousing
communities.

> The community you suggest, which sounds lovely in its way, also wouldn't 
> solve another of my problems: living in very small urban high rise digs 
> when I want to live amongs grass and trees (be more in touch with natural 
> surroundings-god that's how I've lived so much of my life and it is 
> essential to me, absolutely essential) and see neighbors and talk to 
> them when we each want to talk.  But were I to move to such an area 
> alone, outside of coho, I would be in pleasanter surroundings but yet more 
> isolated.  Again, coho is the answer for that.

  This raises another issue that transport-limited people face. Some people
have never lived in a big city and don't want to live in one, but end up
having to because it is the only way they can get access to the public
transport that they need in order to function. A public bus that only makes
2-3 round trips a day just isn't enough. Intentional communities are virtually
the only way that someone in this situation can live in a non-urban area 
without an intense feeling of isolation.
  I myself would prefer to be less dependent on auto travel than I am, but I
don't want to live in a big city. So this is another reason why I am interested
in this aspect of cohousing.

> also the west and northwest.  We all agree.  Philadelphia is one of the 
> coldest cities re associating and forming association.  As a sociologist 

  Thanks for being honest about this. This is my sense about Philly too, based
on what I have heard and a brief visit there. I think Boston and Philly can
learn a lot from each other about cohousing, because they are similar in many
ways (but there is much more cohousing activity in Boston).

> I also strongly believe that if coho doesn't try to find solutions to 
> including more affordable units in each community, or find ways to make 
> some units available at reduced cost, they 
> will be ghetto=ized and exclusive in the same way so much housing is in 
> unintentional noncommunal neighborhoods.  That's a pity.  Especially when 
> it excludes people like myself who, but for a financial situation 
> secondary to an illness, would be coho types (whatever that is) not to 
> mention would especially benefit from coho (the proximity of association).

I agree. And asking for help from the government is not the answer. (For
example, I read in the latest Northeast Cohousing Quarterly insert in Co-
housing Magazine that the Kennebec Valley community in Maine's plans for
government-subsidized affordable units fell through, and most of the members
who were planning to live in these affordable units have dropped out.)

Bob Morrison

Home: Boxboro, MA               Work: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton, MA