Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Diversity - apodment shared kitchen thread

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Aug 6, 2018, at 2:16 PM, Liz Ryan Cole via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:

> I wonder if one of the problems that Groundswell had was of expectations  - 
> we are hoping that some of the apodments (at least) will be owner occupied 
> (perhaps in a coop format) and we also hope that people WILL move in and 
> eventually on, as grad students and singles and couples in their ’20’s and 
> ’30’s live there, and have the chance to learn about cohousing before moving 
> (and maybe becoming advocates for cohousing themselves).

It might work better if the pods were purchased by one person who also lives 
there and the owner rents to people that person chooses. That creates a “buck 
stops here” person, still provides housing for young and single people, and 
relieves the community of the risk and work.

Even if the community needs to help a younger person buy the pod unit by 
carrying the mortgage, they would still be less at risk than having to rent the 
pods themselves. The worst that can happen is that the person defaults and the 
community gets the pods back.

It is not uncommon for people in graduate school to buy or rent a house and 
rent rooms. The house functions cooperatively and the renters cover the 
expenses. If the house is owned, the renters are paying off the mortgage.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org