Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing more feasible now? (fwd)

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

Below is a message I sent to a "commuter community" we are a part of
as well as a couple other people have have had an interest in
cohousing. After the forwarded message are a few thoughts and a
question for cohousing-L folks.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2014 07:58:59
From: Fred H Olson <fholson [at] cohousing.org>

Becca is creeping toward retirement in a couple years.  She has also
stated she'd like to be living in cohousing within 5 years.

I wonder if there might be enough interest now in the Twin Cites to
get a cohousing community built.  It may be time to hold a big cohousing
gathering - try to contact all the people who have expressed interest
over the years as well as any one else we can attract.

A lot of things have changed since the early efforts here in the Twin
Cities.  The big difference is that there are now enough professional
developers with cohousing experience that a solid core group of
future residents could engage them and that would be a huge advantage.
It is still a big organizing project to recurit members and develop a
group but not having to learn the development process makes it much
easier.  One pattern that has worked a number of times is a 'national'
(non local) developer collaborates with a less experienced / resourced
local interested pro and with a core group of future residents.
Finding a enough people to agree on one location is still a challenge.

Over the years there has been some interest amongst Hearth folks in
cohousing.  As peoples lives evolve circumstances may be make a move
to cohousing more feasible - downsizing, needing to move or renovate,
retirement giving more flexibility on living circumstances etc.  Will
a right time be coming up for other Hearth folks?

------------ End forwarded message -------------

Question for cohousing-L...

It seems to me that some people have an interest in cohousing but
the time is not right for them to be part of an effort to develop
cohousing.  But lives evolve. Built communities sometime have waiting
lists of people who might be interested in joining when units become
available.

I forwarded my message above to friend who were interested in
cohousing a year or so ago but ended up moving to a 111-unit housing
cooperative for adults 55+. Another friend is moving to a smaller
house currently (his wife wants gardening opportunities) and I
suspect would consider cohousing it the time were right for them.

Has anyone kept some sort of list of people who would be interested
in moving to cohousing at some point when their life circumstances
permitted with an estimate of when that might be?

As a simplified example, those wanting to develop a cohousing
community knew that there were 10 families that were interested en
moving to cohousing when they retired in about 5 years.  That could be
factored into a development plan quite usefully.

Fred

--
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
     Email:        fholson at cohousing.org      612-588-9532
My Link Pg: http://fholson.cohousing.org         My org:
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