Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Affordable Housing in Your Community - taking on risk

[Richard L. Kohlhaas (rlkohl]

We have had similar  problems at Casa Verde Commons.



From:                   "Norman Gauss" <normangauss [at] charter.net>
> Offering below-market housing to low-income people amounts to pretending
> that there is just as little risk in doing this as there is for
> middle-income people.  If creative financing is resorted to, somebody has to
> take on the higher risk of dealing with people whose reliability in making
> payments may not be proven.
> 
> In our community, residents who have arranged for affordability programs
> have been arrears in their payments more than once since they moved in.  In
> the meantime, extra effort has had to be expended by our finance team to
> repeatedly contact these people to get them to pay their bills.  This is
> time devoted to bill collecting that could have been devoted to more
> constructive things.
> 
> My point is that people with money present a lower risk than those on more
> shaky financial grounds.  Somebody has to take on this risk, and that may
> amount to making the recipient of low-income less responsible for his/her
> financial obligations. 
------------------------------------
Dick Kohlhaas <rlkohl [at] earthlink.net>
(719)633-8170   
Board Member, Cohousing Association of the US
Resident of  Colorado Springs Cohousing Community at Casa Verde Commons
Completed March 2003. 34 units on 4 acres     www.casaverde.us