Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Looking for speakers for The Cohousing Institute

[Sophie Rubin (yophiest]

As a developer of affordable housing, I would like to clear up a common
misconception: affordable housing is not affordable to build. It too is a
social contract, not a type of construction. Basically the only type of
affordable housing that is also affordable to build is a mobile home. Often
affordable units are more expensive to construct than market-rate because
of additional requirements (eg accessibility) and oversight (eg gov’t
financing).

There are a variety of potential ways for co-housing to create more
affordable units, which almost always means subsidizing them in some way,
although it is never easy. This would be a great topic to cover at a
cohousing conference. If you give me 3 years I can probably cover the topic
myself :)

Affordable housing is a social, political issue that affects all of us, and
particularly those of us who live “in community.” It is important to make
cohousing accessible to everyone, not just those in our own socio-economic
tier.


On Thu, Jul 13, 2023 at 07:33 Philip Dowds <rpdowds [at] comcast.net> wrote:

> I will mention again:  Cohousing is a social contract, not a type of
> construction.  When you choose cohousing, you’re buying a particular
> lifestyle, not a special kind of building.  There is no immediate reason to
> expect that a cohousing development will be significantly cheaper to
> accomplish than an “ordinary” housing development of similar size and
> quality.  In developing a residential property, cohousing or otherwise,
> there are choices to make that can noticeably drive up or drive down the
> project cost.  But at a national level, average housing costs are rising at
> a faster rate than average household incomes, and housing of all types
> seems increasingly "unaffordable”.  Cohousing is neither a cause of, nor a
> cure for, our national housing crisis.
>
> ------------------
> Thanks, RPD
>
>
>