Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Limiting whole-house renting in CoHousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Jun 21, 2022, at 10:23 AM, Sara Gottlieb <sara.gottlieb [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> Last year, one of our households, in a hurry to sell their home,
> sold to a non-resident investor whose intention was to rent the house for
> income.  While the situation has (so far) worked out well for the community
> - we were very involved in recruiting renters, and they are very involved,
> community-minded people - the situation raised a lot of concerns that this
> could become a trend with very detrimental impacts on community.  All of us
> receive multiple calls, emails, text messages, and mailings every day from
> investors looking to buy our homes. 

We have a clause in our bylaws that says no absentee owners, and we limit 
rentals to 3 years. We have had very good experiences with renters — some of 
the best community members we’ve had were renters. One problem is that the 
renter becomes like family but when the owner decides to sell, they can’t 
afford to purchase. My personal problem is not wanting to become attached to 
people who then leave but that is true of owners as well as renters. (My 
concept of cohousing is you live there forever, baring unforeseen 
circumstances. It isn’t a pit stop.)

We haven’t resolved the issue of how to provide long term rentals for those who 
can’t afford to buy. In my opinion, it would probably acceptable if a member 
owned two units and lived in one while renting the other. No one so far has 
been able to do this. Prices in DC have gone through the roof, and I receive 
probably 10 calls a week from someone wanting to buy my unit. Which brings up 
the other problem.

The reason you don’t want to become a commodity that someone is only interested 
in making money. It would be nice if there were investors who said "Yes, I want 
to invest in cohousing because I think it is the perfect way for households to 
live. I do expect a return on  my investment but I’m not interested in getting 
rich off cohousing.” At the last conference on affordable housing a developer 
presented who is converting large apartment buildings into cohousing-like 
communities with the help of investors. Apparently it is working very well, so 
it is being done.

But for a small community having a unit that turns over every time the market 
goes up is not a good thing. It’s like having the family member who brings a 
different man to every family gathering. If there are 30-50 people there, it 
doesn’t matter. But if it is a family meal of 8 people, a stranger with an 
undetermined future is like boulder sitting in the middle of the room. And it’s 
alive.

Another very real issue now — and one that is even harder to avoid — is people 
renting their units in order to support themselves. Some one could now rent out 
a unit for $3,000+ a month, go live in Greece, and never work again. When that 
person has been looking for a job or has been underemployed for years and seems 
unable to work again, it is very hard to say no. This is someone you have lived 
happily with for 15 years. How do you say no when the need seems real and the 
solution so simple?

Well it isn’t really that simple because there will be no resident person to 
take care of the unit or make decisions about it. It will involved a lot of 
attention from community members to maintain that unit and the people in it.

It isn’t the people involved that are worrisome but the circumstances. Those 
circumstances can prevent a positive solution for “those left behind.”

To mix apples and oranges — it’s like the law to make all abortions illegal. 
The only way to enforce such a law is to have all women monitored to be sure 
that if they are pregnant they stay that way. Since no one knows if a woman is 
pregnant, the state through hospitals, clinics, etc, will have to monitor all 
women of child bearing age, say ages 12-55.

Accepting the reality of abortion is uncomfortable but it’s far better than the 
alternative.

Same with limiting renting.

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