Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: affordable cohousing

[Ellen Orleans (ellen]

Here in Boulder, Colorado I am part of an economically-diverse cohousing
community, Wild Sage. We are a mix of market rate, permanently-affordable,
and Habitat for Humanity housing. Houses range from $85,000 to 410,000. I'm
in the permanently-affordable group (one has to apply through Boulder's
Housing Services office; there are income and resale restrictions).

Overall, sales have been strong, out of 34 units, thirty are presold; to me
this indicates that people are not spooked by mixing income levels.

We haven't broke ground yet, but there is little friction between the income
groups (perhaps because most of us have similar politics and ethnic
backgrounds, ie, White Liberals. Also, it is easy for college-educated,
"white-collar" types to be "financially-challenged" in Boulder--income
simply doesn't keep pace with housing costs are here. We have six single
Moms, and 12 single people, so we are not a hugely couple-orientated
community either.

People from all income levels are active in the community. We are partnered
with Wonderland Hill Cohousing, who, working with the City of Boulder and
Habitat, set all this up ahead of time. Wonderland is developing a similar
cohousing neighborhood in Longmont, about 15 miles east of Boulder and its
initial group of families are of varied incomes as well.

By the way, I've been so happy working with Wonderland that I accepted a job
offer from them last summer--now I'm both a client and employee!

Ellen Orleans
Wild Sage Cohousing
Wonderland Hills Development Co.

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