Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: HELP MAKE COHOUSING MORE AFFORDABLE

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Hello Sharon, Margaret and all -- see below.

Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church VA
703-688-2646

On Nov 21, 2013, at 10:36 AM, Sharon Villines wrote:

> 
> 
> On Nov 21, 2013, at 8:58 AM, Margaret Porter <margaret.porter [at] 
> mindspring.com> wrote:
> 
>> Realistic methods must be found for for making it affordable to actually 
>> live in a cohousing community over the long term, 

I agree w/ this -- there has to be more long term planning by the members 
themselves for figuring out if owning a home -- any home -- is going to be 
affordable over time.  Costs always rise.
> 
> I would second this in terms of long term affordability. The people who 
> developed cohousing were "I can do it" people who found out how to do things 
> and thought about how to save money wisely. They were concerned about 
> investment in long lasting environmentally sound decisions.
 
This is certainly true here at Takoma Village.

> As the community has become an attractive "sure thing," that has become less 
> the case. 

I don't believe I agree w/ this.  We do look at long term use and investment in 
the physical plant as one of the aspects of affordability here at TVC.  That's 
why we have not replaced our CH heating units w/ 2nd hand ones.  We've looked 
for more efficient new ones.
> 
> While we just signed up for wind power electricity,

I think this speaks to my point.  We've now signed up the CH electricity for 
wind power.  Many of the residents here are also signing up for wind power.

> LEED standards have not been spoken of as a value for a long time. The 
> filters in the CH, for example, have been downgraded from a MERVE 12 to a 7.

I can't speak to the standard but the filters were changed because the new 
filters are washable and therefore do not contribute to the trash stream.  
Whether 12, 15 or 7 is the correct number I don't know.  And whether it's more 
important to have washable filters or filters that do a better job of keeping 
out dust etc. for those w/ allergies ... if this is a problem we need to 
revisit this decision.  

> The LEED standard, the last time I checked was 15. I and at least one other 
> can't spend more time in the CH than 2-4 hours without having reactions to 
> the air quality. My throat closes up and she starts coughing. For that we 
> save $1200 a year, but just hired a management company to handle facilities 
> projects at several hundred dollars a month.

Well we hired the management company to take on more long term intensive 
projects because people are totally burned out dealing w/ sewer ejector pumps, 
CH flooring, major maintenance etc. etc. etc. which require many, many, many 
hours of research, bidding and then oversight.   Running at $15-20 million 
dollar property is a HUGE project.   That's why there are management companies. 
  Plus we have a big facility for a community our size in population.
> 
> Do we have a beautiful facility? Yes. But the condo fees are now equal to 
> those of other condos in the area, plus we do more work, some of us much 
> more. Those fees include minimal funds for social activity support.
> 

Our condo fees have been and continue to be lower than the condo fees of 
surrounding condo developments of equal value.  We had only a 2% rise in condo 
fees this year which included covering the new management contract.  We have 
never had a "call" for funds and our reserves are happy, healthy and wisely 
maintained.  You've had a lot to do w/ insuring that, Sharon for which we are 
all grateful!

I'm guessing most cohousing communities have minimal support for social 
activities to keep the condo fees low.  The expectation is the members will 
fund these activities as they come  up.  I do wish this is one thing that would 
change here.  Some people not only put in time but also money just to have 
social activities.  I used to do a lot of wine and cheese events but I cut back 
because I was seriously running out of money.

> Commitment to affordability is very hard to maintain. We always want more. 
> And one person's good investment and aesthetically worth it are another 
> person's waste of money.

I totally agree w/ this.

The affordability issue is a knotty one because someone has to pay the 
difference between what it costs to build and maintain a home and what the 
below market or discounted rate is to the future owner of the affordable home.  
If it costs $100,000 to build a home but the buyer can only afford $80,000 then 
someone or some entity has to make up the difference.  It's not free.  If it 
costs $100 a month to maintain a home but the owner only has $90 then someone 
makes up the $10.  And as costs rise if people haven't figured this into their 
budget when buying the home ... well  you can see the train wreck.  That's why 
more counseling and help budgeting for would be homeowners is so vital.  

In terms of affordability, I particularly favor the Land Trust model.  Here in 
DC a  major portion of the affordable home program has been outsourced to a 
Land Trust.   The DC gov't gives the Trust X  amount of money and the Trust 
then buys homes that it resells at a discount or works w/ developers to reserve 
a portion of a new development for affordable housing that will be permanently 
in the Trust.   The Trust owns the ground the home is built on.  It takes out 
the cost of the land from the equation and "rents" the home to the homeowner on 
a very long term lease.  The homeowner pays a very minor monthly fee to the 
Trust usually around $25.00 per month.  When the house is sold the Trust 
recoups its investment and maintains the house in the affordable housing 
program.  This is a very, very very brief sketch of how our DC Land Trust 
works.  It's actually quite a complicated set of equations and loans, etc. that 
The  Trust deals w/ but the transactions for the homeowner are transparent and 
quite easy.

Here's the website:

http://www.cfhomes.org/cgi-bin/CFH

And here's an article Yommie Ah sent to me today about DC Mayor Gray's 
initiative on affordable housing.  It helps to have a leader promoting 
affordable housing:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/mike-debonis/wp/2013/11/20/vincent-gray-seeks-to-burnish-affordable-housing-record/?wprss=rss_local
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