Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Rental Percentage? Participation Levels?

[R Philip Dowds (rpdowds]

Cornerstone was intended as entirely ownership.  The four requisite 
“affordable" units are managed under a municipal limited equity ownership 
program.  Even so, at this point in time, two units are owned by absentees, and 
occupied under long-term lease.  A couple other units have special arrangements 
that do not exactly align with conventional owner-occupied models.

Our condo docs stipulate that rentals need to be approved by the community.  In 
practice, however, nobody has the heart to enforce the rules, so most of the 
requirements about rentals are dormant or abandoned.  Which you might want to 
take as a warning:  Try to avoid rules you will not really enforce.  This may 
save you from many hours of arguing about things that aren’t going to happen.

Thanks,
Philip Dowds
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

PS: Some of our rentals are among our most active participants, and some of our 
owners are seen only rarely.

> On Mar 20, 2016, at 12:44 PM, Susan McFee <susan.mcfee2020 [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> 
> What is your percentage of rental homes?
> How are your participation levels in comparison to that amount?
> Our community had a discussion when we were close to 10% full suite rentals
> and there was no consensus around capping it. Now that we are at 26%
> rentals and inching closer to 70% home owners there are a few questions
> being raised about participation and parking, especially since other
> stratas cap their full suite rentals at 10% or follow rules such as "first
> home owner of a unit may rent - when the unit is sold, future home owners
> may not rent".
> We haven't compared the mix of owners who participate and owners who don't
> to the renters who participate and renters who don't - so that may be a
> step prior to community discussion.
> We are also in a transition phase between consensus and Sociocracy, and the
> new levels of transparency appear to be encouraging action in a wider
> variety of areas.
> Thank you for any insights, stories or suggestions you respond back with,
> Susan McFee
> WindSong Cohousing
> susanmcfee2020 at gmail dot com
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