Re: Regarding Affordability in Cohousing
From: Tom Smyth (tomsassafras.coop)
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2016 06:28:02 -0700 (PDT)
Gayle, that idea sounds amazing! I say go for it!

On Mon, Aug 22, 2016 at 9:49 AM, Gayle Alston <galston1954 [at] gmail.com> 
wrote:

>
> This idea around affordability is very near to my heart.  I have hopes of
> converting a 1960's cement block motel into a solo senior cohousing
> property in a small (pop 150) town in rural south Georgia.  My thinking is
> that each person will have a room that is rehabbed with a murphy bed,
> living area, frig/micro/toaster.  Common area will include a home theater
> and cafe and 35 acres of wooded area with a fairly extensive raised bed
> gardening operation.  I am also considering opening up the front section of
> my nearby (100 yds) home for common area so people can use the kitchen,
> dining room, and den.
>
> I would like to make it available to seniors like me... who are happily
> solo but may not have planned so well for retirement so have limited
> monthly incomes.  I would like to intentionally recruit members who will
> bring different skills for the ongoing development of the property for the
> good of all.
>
> Am I completely off base here?
>
> On Sat, Aug 20, 2016 at 1:14 PM, Angela Steiert <angie.steiert [at] gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >
> > I think it is safe to say that unless a community has subsidized a unit
> or
> > gotten section 8 housing approval, that most co-housing communities
> prices
> > put their members in a higher income bracket.  $230,000 & $250,000 is a
> lot
> > of money.  Someone would have to make at least $75,000 a year to pay that
> > mortgage and less than 15% of American's make that much money.  Therefore
> > only the top 15% of American's  are able to participate in a cohousing
> > community at those prices, which makes it a somewhat elitist entity.  I
> > live in a cohousing community and I did not pay that much money, but I
> was
> > quite shocked to see the majority of prices for communities when I was
> > hoping to join one. I am a teacher, and I find it quite sad to think that
> > most teacher's, unless they have two incomes in their homes, could not
> live
> > in a cohousing community.  There is really no easy answer to this, as I
> > have come to realize that most cohousing communities are private
> entities,
> > and that cohousing is in limited quantity in the US which makes it more
> > valuable. I do think we have to acknowledge the reality of cohousing in
> > America.  So, there are places out there with more reasonable prices, but
> > even those are probably too high for many Americans at the wages they
> > currently make.
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> >
> >
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>


-- 
Tom Smyth

Worker-Owner, Sassafras Tech Collective
Specializing in innovative, usable tech for social change
sassafras.coop *·* @sassafrastech

Resident, Touchstone Cohousing
touchstonecohousing.org

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