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

[Liz Ryan Cole (lizryancole]

This is a response to those who criticize cohousing for being too expensive, 
who describe the cohousing world dismissively as using “rhetoric”  (language 
designed to have a persuasive effect on its audience, but regarded as lacking 
in sincerity or meaningful content), or who suggest cohousers don’t “show a 
commitment to making cohousing affordable.” 

 Cohousing CAN be less expensive to live in, and one might be able to live in a 
smaller footprint home because of sharing, but it is no less expensive per foot 
to create. There are only two ways to pay for new building - paying for it 
directly or with some sort of external subsidy.

 What does it cost to build? Building costs in rural New England were about 
$225 per sf in 2006 - so a 1000 sf home would have cost at least $270K to 
build, without including costs for infrastructure (septic/water/roads, etc.), 
buying the land, finance costs and developer profit. Building costs in my part 
of the world  today are approaching $400K per sf, which leads to costs of more 
than $500,000 for a 1000 sf home.

 While cohousing projects attempt to reduce cost by doing some/all of our own 
development, the rest of the costs are not lower, simply because we are 
developing cohousing. 

 Prices like these regularly elicit critical responses. We need to be able to 
respond.

 One thing that sets cohousing apart is that we care about the people who can’t 
afford to participate. We care about them as individuals and we care about 
wealth disparity.  We donot want to create “elitist enclaves”. We try to think 
outside the box. We consider whether building more common space might allow 
people to live in even less than 1000 sf. We explore building strategies that 
might reduce building costs while still paying a fair wage to those who are 
doing the building. We look for external sources to help subsidize the real 
costs, perhaps assessing ourselves in order to make it possible for one or two 
people who could not otherwise afford to pay the actual costs to become 
cohousing neighbors. We also use external funding sources at the local, state 
or federal level, but those funds are often only available for people who would 
not define themselves as “solidly middle class”.  

 Living in community, sharing costs and challenges as well as a rewards, is not 
just a strategy to reduce living costs, it is a way to help reduce our 
environmental footprint, practice care of all residents, from infants to 
elders, and build awareness of and then address current political practices 
(like our tax system) which is part of what is creating income inequality.

Private charity can only do so much. We need to remind ourselves and those who 
question the cohousing movement’s sincerity, that it is not lack of commitment 
on our part. There are multiple challenges that need regular work. Whether we 
already live in cohousing or want to live in cohousing in the future, we must 
devote significant time and energy to changing the rules. WE are the government 
and we need the government to step up to change zoning rules and provide 
external funding sources so it is possible to build homes that cost people no 
more than 30% of their incomes.  If we are not doing this, then perhaps we are 
just spouting rhetoric.  If the movement is to grow, the need for action 
applies to everyone, those who want to live in cohousing as well as those who 
already live in cohousing.

 liz

Liz Ryan Cole
Pinnacle Project, LLC
Not yet able to build cohousing due to zoning challenges

these are my own thoughts. I am not speaking for the Board of CohoUS, of which 
I am a member.  They do explain in part why I am happy to serve on the Board.

> On Mar 23, 2022, at 10:25 AM, Stephen McClure <stephenfmcclure [at] 
> gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Yes, b farris, you hit the nail on the head. My wife and I have been 
> investigating cohousing groups for a couple of years now. Almost all new 
> development projects are beyond our means, and I would say we’re comfortably 
> middle class.
> The demographic slice that has the progressive values to be interested in 
> cohousing coupled with sufficient wealth to afford it is rather small.
> Unless you find a way to make cohousing affordable to working and 
> lower-to-middle middle class folks, your movement will not grow 
> significantly. In fact, it will contribute to the growing wealth disparity in 
> our society by creating, despite the lovely inclusive rhetoric, elitist 
> enclaves.
> Stephen McClure
> 
>> On Mar 23, 2022, at 06:16, 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. 
>> 
>>> On Mar 22, 2022, at 11:29 AM, Mac Thomson via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
>>> cohousing.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> The communities movement is a slow growing tree. My faith is that if we 
>>> keep nurturing it, it will continue to strengthen and grow. And hopefully 
>>> someday that growth will really accelerate and community living will become 
>>> commonplace.
>>> 
>>> Covid has certainly made people reevaluate their values and choices and 
>>> driven many to community living. May the trend continue.
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Mac Thomson
>>> 
>>> Heartwood Cohousing
>>> Southwest Colorado
>>> http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you 
>>> become by achieving your goals.” 
>>>         - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
>>> **********************************************************
>>> 
>>>>> On Mar 22, 2022, at 9:56 AM, Steve Welzer <stevenwelzer [at] gmail.com> 
>>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Ways to live with less stress on people and on “the planet” are desperately
>>>> needed, and those of us in the movement feel sure that cohousing and
>>>> ecovillage living shows a way forward in that regard.
>>>> 
>>>> I was so encouraged when Katie McCamant launched the “500 Communities”
>>>> program in 2015. I really thought that hundreds of cohousing communities
>>>> would get created within the projected ten-year time span. But here we are
>>>> seven years later having to acknowledge that it and other such endeavors
>>>> have fallen far, far short of those aspirations.
>>>> 
>>>> Badly needed. Hard to accomplish. Anticipating a breakthrough toward
>>>> scaling up the lifeways transformation our movement represents.
>>>> 
>>>> Thoughts?
>>>> 
>>>> Steve Welzer
>>>> (working with Altair EcoVillage in Kimberton, PA)
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>>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
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