Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing as retirement community?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

on 7/14/2002 8:51 PM, Bob Morrison at bomorris [at] cisco.com wrote:

>  Has anyone in the U.S. considered setting up a retirement community
> on a cohousing model? That is, a community that is created and managed
> by the members, has a common house (instead of a clubhouse), etc., but
> has a minimum age (such as 50 or 55) like a retirement community does.
> I realize that setting a minimum age like this runs counter to the
> principles of cohousing. But I thought I would ask.

There are nonprofit retirement communities that run essentially like
cohousing. A particular Quaker group includes Crosslands and Kendell in
Pennsylvania. They have others in Maine.

They have a million committees that do everything from accept new members to
running a daycare center for the employees. They also have an extended care
facility. The residents make the rules but they do hire professional staff
to run the kitchen, the extended care wing, and do maintenance. But controls
are in the hands of the residents. An umbrella group exists but they are
also essentially volunteers.

Residents "buy" their apartments and pay a monthly fee that includes house
cleaning, linen service, and one meal a day. The other two meals are very
inexpensive and guests are welcome. They also have a committee that helps
residents who run out of money before they run out of life but they do
screen applicants carefully for ability to afford their units before they
move in as well as their physical health. They can only manage so many
Alzheimers patients at one time, for example.

New residents pay an initial nonrefundable amount depending on the size of
the apartment they "buy." This amount is partially refundable if you move
out in the first few years, but not at death, nor can the units be resold.
People often move to smaller units when a spouse dies and receive some sort
of credit.

They have very small and fairly large units plus a guest house. Extensive
common areas including an elaborate woodworking shop, science room, lecture
room, and large crafts area where people have working areas including a huge
electric train set up.

There is a non-profit association that oversees the development of new
communities and monitors the various issues like finding good staff, how to
handle increasing incidents of Alzheimers, providing promotion opportunities
for staff amongst the various communities, etc.

They have huge waiting lists. You have to start membership years in advance.

Before I found cohousing I seriously considered one of these communities
because I wanted to write and they are so easy to live in. I'm glad I found
cohousing because of the age range but cohousing could learn a lot from this
organization.

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


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