Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Buying Cohousing Homes to rent out for secure tenancies?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Feb 14, 2020, at 3:34 AM, Fiona Frank <fionafrank [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> A group of members are looking at buying a home to rent out to allow for
> secure tenancies to encourage younger people to live here for longer. We
> want to do this by lending money to the community and getting the community
> to buy the home.
> Lots of issues to deal with including unequal power (lenders vs renters),
> concerns by non lenders about risk, etc.

We don’t have a community rental unit but have had lots of renters. Their place 
in the community is entirely determined by how much they participate. Most 
become like regular members. The only time there would be any kind of exclusion 
would be around an issue that only related to ownership— something legal with 
consequences. Even then, they would participate in the discussion, particularly 
if they had some knowledge about the specific issue.

From our experience with renters, I would say go for it. Fears about power 
struggles are unwarranted in respect to renters. As with owners, if they fully 
understand what the place is all about, they choose to live here and 
participate.

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