Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: We need to find ways to scale this up

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Mar 22, 2022, at 7:42 PM, b farris via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> My feeling is that communities haven’t shown a commitment to making 
> co-housing affordable. 

I had a lively visit and chat with Ann Zabaldo first thing this morning and she 
reminded me that I forgot some things in my message yesterday. She didn’t have 
time to write them herself, so I’ve been charged. 

(She came down to make a video of the unboxing of my new Blue iPhone 13 Pro 
with 256 GB. We were both stumped, however, because neither of our fingers are 
strong enough to get the case off the 7 year old iPhone 6. I still have to find 
a teenager before I can transfer the SIM card.)

Important points that should be highlighted:

1. Every cohousing community begins wanting to be affordable and to have the 
widest range of income diversity as possible. In the process of developing 
realistic plans, the community becomes as unaffordable as other housing for all 
the same reasons.

2. All residential housing is in crisis. Cohousing is not alone. Many people 
are housing insecure no matter whether they rent or want to purchase. The list 
of reasons is long but the major ones are the expense of financing, the cost of 
construction materials, the lack of affordable land,  prohibitive zoning, and 
outmoded construction codes that prohibit more efficient, stronger, and less 
expensive building materials and construction methods.

3. There is no special dispensation for cohousing. While many of us consider 
cohousing to be a public service, a non-profit venture, or a charitable 
activity, no one else does. Cohousing is real estate development. There are no 
tax write offs, low interest rates, or alternative financing for cohousing. 

4. The problems are primarily local and have to be resolved locally. It is the 
local zoning, the interests of city planners, the interests of bankers, and the 
friendliness of neighbors that present the biggest hurdles. This makes it very 
difficult to help local groups except to provide encouragement and offer 
examples on Cohousing-L or other means of communication.

5. The Catch 22 is that the best and fastest way to provide affordable housing 
and address climate change is to reduce the size of individual living spaces — 
and their yards measured in acres. There are many examples of alternate housing 
discussed and pictured on the Strong Neighborhoods blog. But a key factor is 
size. Or materials. There are huge Barnominiums that will last “forever” but 
would not be allowed in cities  or even suburbs.

http://strongneighborhoods.info

They are beautiful and well designed and costable—meaning the information is 
published so you can compare costs within an estimated range. 

In addition to new materials and alternative construction methods, Ty Albright, 
and others, have developed workable models that are as affordable and as 
well-designed and constructed as they can be. This blog post details his 
strategy:

https://www.strongneighborhoods.info/designing-low-cost-housing-that-works/

He applied all his experience in developing and selling real estate but the 
price still doubled during construction becoming close to market rate. It is 
actually very affordable if you use the floor plan the way he designed it 
because it can easily be used as 2 living units. And is the first of 6-10 
houses in a pocket neighborhood. 

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/720-E.-4th-St.-Sulphur,-Oklahoma_rb/2071578521_zpid/

6.  Note my first email of the day that the size of units in the Japanese 
cohousing community range from 269-650 SF. Few if any American banks will 
finance units that small because “they have no resale value.” Even though every 
second person wanting to purchase a cohousing unit wants a one bedroom, many 
won’t finance one-bedrooms. Outside of large cities, bankers will declare with 
no evidence that "there is no market.”

Zoning prohibits small houses. Even as conventional looking small houses.

The best floor plan in Takoma Village is the 625 SF one bedroom with a den that 
is often used as a bedroom and can be passed off as a two bedroom. It is 
fabulous use of space. It is so popular that the price, relatively, is more 
expensive than the 2 bedroom. Many of the alternative housing strategies focus 
on better use of space to reduce both construction costs and ongoing 
maintenance and utility costs. But you would have to build them somewhere other 
than in the cities where someone wants to live.


I’m not trying to be negative. I guess, better, I’m trying to drum up some 
outrage energy. As Nancy Pelosi says, "We don’t agonize, we organize.” There 
are examples everywhere of people who have broken down barriers so there are 
examples. It’s just complicated. It’s a Swiss cheese task — one step at a time. 
And a Good Plan.

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