Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: affordable cohousing

[Liz Brown (clzbrown]

Thank you for  this post. Can you tell me how to get more information about the 
partnership with habitat?

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 22, 2016, at 11:37 AM, Alan O'Hashi via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> silver sage village has 16 homes of which 10 are market rate and six were 
> built for the city of boulder permanently affordable housing program. (i will 
> let you look it up on the city of boulder website, rather than explain it.) 
> wild sage cohousing across the street partnered with habitat for humanity as 
> well as the city affordable program. here are a few random thoughts:
> 
> - i suggest you have a serious and frank discussion among yourselves about 
> why you personally - as opposed to philosophical - want affordable housing. 
> get strong commitments about all being willing to pay more money out of 
> pocket to level the field for those who cannot otherwise afford to live 
> there. (partner with others rather than tackle affordable housing on your 
> own. even if you do find ways to subsidize building costs that doesn't lower 
> monthly hoa costs.)
> 
> - the affordable homes are 800sqft and worth $150000 (i live in one of these) 
> and limited in appreciation. the   market rate are between 1100 and 2300sqft 
> and valued at $500000 and $1000000 and rising. (market rate owners have a 
> bigger desire to protect their interests by jacking up reserves and buying 
> more / pricey amenities.) 
> 
> - i suggest you build your homes so they are all affordable to people / 
> families of similar means. (at silver sage over the years an informal caste 
> system arose.)
> 
> - i suggest building all your homes of similar size so the homeowner fees are 
> more equally distributed. (at silver sage fees range from $450ish to $650ish.)
> 
> - i suggest you build enough homes to spread around the fees, see above. (i 
> think the sweet spot is around 32.)
> 
> - i suggest you design the homes ala 'the not so big house' by sarah susanka 
> to encourage residents to use the common house. (at silver sage, the common 
> house is used more by the affordable homeowners because our living spaces are 
> smaller. we have more use by non-residents who rent it.)
> 
> i have more, but this should fuel the conversation.
> 
> Alan O'Hashi
> Have Camera - Will Travel
> BCM  303-910-5782 
> WCM 307-245-1910
> Typos By iPhone Auto-Correct
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