Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: How do communities deal with members who can't pay their condo fees or assessments?

[Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizm]

So how do you deal with the members who can't pay their condo fees or 
assessments? That is the question at hand.

I'm all about process and not much about copper rather than rubber. But I'm 
also about keeping the limited economic diversity that we have. 

The question at hand is about helping our neighbors. There is a cost to that. 
We are solving that cost by having some folk subsidize other folk, which we do 
by making some part of our fee sliding scale. 

I'm not sure how that leads to the presumption that we aren't prioritizing 
community? The fact that it is a separate budget does not make it unimportant, 
it makes it subject to the sliding scale.

-Liz
(The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
www.ecclesiaministriesmission.org
www.mosaic-commons.org
508-450-0431




On Feb 12, 2016, at 2:32 PM, R Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:

> 
> I appreciate the need to make careful discriminations among various expense 
> categories according to the rules of HOAs as established by the State having 
> jurisdiction.  But even within that rule set, there are always ambiguities 
> and difficult choices.
> 
> Yes, a tight roof and working hot water are probably necessities, and maybe 
> we can do without a process consultant.  Maybe “consensus training” is a 
> luxury that only the wealthiest cohos can consider.
> 
> But at Cornerstone, we just paid “extra” for ice belting made out of copper 
> instead of rubber.  And we’re about to pay “extra” for hot water tanks made 
> out of stainless steel instead of copper.  Total bill in the high five 
> figures.  However, when it comes to the low four figures for a process 
> consultant, well, that’s over the top when money is short.  An unnecessary 
> extravagance, Yes?
> 
> But (speaking only for myself) I came here, not to learn and practice 
> roofing, but to learn and practice community.  For me, copper belts are the 
> luxuries, and consensus training is the necessity.
> 
> Am I getting something backwards here?
> 
> Thanks,
> Philip Dowds
> Cornerstone Village Cohousing
> Cambridge, MA
> 
>> On Feb 12, 2016, at 2:05 PM, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> yea, sure. in a perfect world I agree. but in a perfect world everyone can 
>> afford the fees, too.
>> 
>> What we wanted was to make fees sliding scale. Turns out you can't legally 
>> do that with HOA fees. But you can say HOA is just water, septic, sewer, 
>> reserves, and plowing.
>> 
>> So what we gained is about $100 per month flexibility in our costs. 
>> Worth it to me.
>> 
>> 
>> -Liz
>> (The Rev.) Elizabeth M. Magill
>> www.ecclesiaministriesmission.org
>> www.mosaic-commons.org
>> 508-450-0431
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Feb 12, 2016, at 1:43 PM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] 
>> sharonvillines.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Feb 12, 2016, at 1:02 PM, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com> 
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> So its a small benefit...but enough to make it so that people's 
>>>> frustrations over the increases in the absolutely necessary items can be 
>>>> balanced with the decision for some households to spend less on the 
>>>> "optional" items without requiring that we go without any option items.
>>> 
>>> Many people here also define things as “absolutely necessary” and “extra.” 
>>> In cohousing, I don’t know how you do this. I believe it’s all the same 
>>> ball of wax or it isn’t cohousing.
>>> 
>>> For example, the commonhouse isn’t “necessary.” All the activities 
>>> contribute to the value of individual units. 
>>> 
>>> The wear and tear on the CH is as much due to “extras” as to “necessary” to 
>>> maintain values. Why aren’t those cohousing costs — 50% of repairs and 
>>> maintenance of the CH, for example are “extras.”
>>> 
>>> It seems that when we start talking this way, people discount the 
>>> importance of budgeting money to provide part of an otherwise potluck meal. 
>>> Or songbooks for group sings. Or furniture for the kids room since not 
>>> everyone has kids. 
>>> 
>>> For years we only had Thrift Shop or hand-me-down furniture in the 
>>> guestrooms. The photos I took during a stay at Cornerstone cohousing 
>>> finally tipped the balance to purchasing new things that were the right 
>>> scale for the relatively small guest rooms. Oddly, some of the accepted 
>>> hand-me-downs were being donated because they were too large for people’s 
>>> units. The rooms now look much more spacious. The new furniture is white 
>>> and light Birch which helps enormously. No dark wood.
>>> 
>>> The feeling of spaciousness expands to not making divisions between what is 
>>> necessary and what is extra. It’s all based on what we want the community 
>>> to be or do. We have the conversation over again whenever there is an 
>>> unexpected expense but the result is always the same. It’s all cohousing.
>>> 
>>> Sharon
>>> ----
>>> Sharon Villines
>>> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
>>> http://www.takomavillage.org
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
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