Re: Something Magical Happened at Takoma Village Last Night ...
From: R Philip Dowds (rpdowdscomcast.net)
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 11:40:22 -0700 (PDT)
Congratulations to all.  The investment merits of cohousing may be inescapably 
obvious to us … but sadly, as most of us know, getting the feds to respond to 
the obvious is an enormous challenge.  But before we go too far down the path 
of dissing the feds, let’s not forget that there is no more cautious and 
conservative creature on earth than an investment capitalist.  Congratulations, 
again.

RPD

On Jun 11, 2014, at 2:20 PM, Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:

> 
> … at an event in a Washington, DC cohousing neighborhood, celebrating the 
> culmination of a couple of years working on a campaign to benefit cohousing.
> 
> Cohousing Coach Raines Cohen, a Cohousing California regional organizer 
> living at Berkeley Cohousing, dished out the ice cream and hot fudge to 
> celebrate the end of a petition campaign to have HUD treat cohousing 
> condominiums the same as all other condominiums for purposes of certifying a 
> cohousing project for federally backed mortgage insurance.
> 
> Raines and Alice Green visited HUD offices yesterday (Tues. 6/10) to deliver 
> the petition and express appreciation and support to the HUD officials who 
> brought about the change, and learn about their process. They were joined at 
> the meeting by Within Reach movie creator Amanda Kay and Golden Gate 
> Cohousing's Sean Culman, and at the party by Alice's employers at salvage 
> company Urban Ore, who donated airline miles so she could be there, along 
> with members of Takoma Village and nearby Eastern Village cohousing.
> 
> The specific circumstance involved Raines’ neighbor, Alice, who wanted to 
> obtain a reverse mortgage so she could continue to stay in her home in 
> Berkeley Cohousing. She was denied the approval because the regional field 
> office for HUD declined to fully review her application because the staff did 
> not understand that cohousing has privately owned, fully complete, self 
> sufficient homes.
> 
> Through the petition, which gathered more than 11,500 signatures in 3.5 
> months, plus a breakthrough in which HUD staff shared cohousing materials 
> from the Coho/US national website with condo technical assistance providers, 
> led to movement leader Katie McCamant visiting HUD and helping them see that 
> we’re not just condos — we’re the best condos around:  lower foreclosure 
> rates, deeper reserves, more member participation, etc. All of this means 
> lower risk for lenders and ultimately HUD as lender of last resort. (HUD is 
> being super cautious since the recession started in 2008.)
> 
> Cohousing is the BEST investment a lending institution can make … and it’s UP 
> TO US TO MAKE THE CASE.
> 
> What Raines, Alice, Katie and others did was to take the initial “defeat” and 
> turn it into an opportunity to educate policy makers about cohousing.  Rather 
> than hiding our light under a bushel, we need to be showing financiers, 
> government agencies, developers, et al what a good, solid investment they can 
> have in cohousing.
> 
> “Lots of people insisted this petition was futile,” said Raines. However, 
> Raines and others kept on pushing doing it in a way that helped allies step 
> up, prompting the change. At the celebration last night Raines said, “It’s 
> important to know when NOT to listen to people who say ‘it can’t be done’.”
> 
> Congratulations, Alice, Raines, Katie and CohoUS volunteers who made this 
> milestone possible.
> 
> Want to know more about the campaign? Visit:
> 
> http://www.AgingInCommunity.com/help-alice/
> 
> Best --
> 
> Ann Zabaldo
> Takoma Village Cohousing
> Washington, DC
> Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
> Falls Church VA
> 703-688-2646
> 
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