Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing in New York City

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> Another thought I (Fred) had is that if I wanted to build in NYC,
> I'd consider the Swedish model - "kollektivhus" which is basically an
> apartment building with the first floor and basement being common space.
> The typical US / Danish townhouse-like layout may require more land
> than is available / affordable in many areas of NYC.

I was in Manhattan when I first heard the word "cohousing" and did a lot of
thinking about how this could work in the city. Legally it is a natural
concept for NY since so most people already live in coops and condos. The
first hurdle people have to face outside NY is already removed.

The people are there also. Contrary to popular opinion, New Yorkers are very
interdependent and understand the need to band together. They are also
housing starved. Stability is hard even for the very rich. Rent controlled
apartments are not all they are cracked up to be. They may be comparatively
cheap but you are also not allowed to have various "new" appliances like
washers and dryers. Even putting in a new sink means bribing the management.

The problem is the construction industry and City regulations. You have to
have a developer who knows how to negotiate the maze.

The other problem is money -- the big numbers. I just couldn't think in
numbers that big. But there is a way to do it.

If you can find a rent controlled building that is for sale and convince the
residents to buy and renovate the building themselves, there are various
federal programs to help do this. I knew a woman who lived in such a
building about 10-15 years ago. It was hard but they did it. The motivating
force was that their rents were $150 a month for (very small) one bedroom
apartments and they couldn't find anywhere else to live for that price.

The rent controlled residents couldn't be moved out, but they could be
helped to buy their apartments. Or other people could buy them for them. It
was hard work and it wasn't the best neighborhood in NY at that time but now
they own their own apartments a few blocks from the newly revived Times
Square area.

The basement is storage and HVAC territory. Maintenance. Lockers.

The first floor is retail and professional offices -- commercial space that
helps support the building.

Then you work in the commonspace where it fits. Some ideas were to put the
different elements of the commonspace on different floors so everyone was up
and down the building and had the advantage of having something close to
them. Otherwise if you use one floor for commonspace, the people who live on
the 4th floor probably never go to the 8th floor. Which may be okay, but it
will happen.

Washington now has a bond program for first time homebuyers so renovating a
building here would also work. Building from scratch in a city is hard -- no
space.

Sharon
-- 
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org


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