Cohousing-L Mailing List: Finding ways to scale up cohousing

[Marty Maskall (mmaskall]

Thank you, Liz, for your excellent explanation of the challenges to scale up
cohousing, or any other building project.  I have been reading the posts and
trying to figure out how to respond in a helpful fashion.  You did that for
me.  And you didn't even mention the governmental fees we have to pay.  For
Fair Oaks EcoHousing, which started out as a $15M project, we had to pay
$1.4 million in fees!  We moved in starting in June 2020.  For anyone
interested in the challenges of our 15 year journey, go to
https://www.fairoaksecohousing.org/history-of-fair-oaks-ecohousing 

Marty Maskall
Founder, Fair Oaks EcoHousing
Located 20 miles east of Sacramento, CA

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2022 10:31:25 -0400
From: Liz Ryan Cole <lizryancole [at] me.com>
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ We need to find ways to scale this up
Message-ID: <D8FD9DF9-47C5-4B19-9A79-15C5A7FEAFCD [at] me.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset=utf-8

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.