Cohousing-L Mailing List: Rentals and power

[anarres!gaarder (anarres!gaarder]

Hello!  I'm part of Ecovillage at Ithaca, a fairly :-) ambitious project
which, we hope, will end up with 5 or 6 cohousing neighborhoods of 30 or
so households each on a 170-acre parcel just outside of Ithaca, New
York.  Thre's a lot more I could add, and probably will in a later
message, but there is an issue that has come up for us that I'd like to
hear others' ideas on.

We have several people in our group who could afford to buy more than
one unit, renting the other out.  This has some obvious advantages - we
sell more units, and people who we'd really like to have in the group
but can't scrape together a down payment could live there.  On the other
hand, I am very concerned about the effect on the community of having
the power imbalance of a landlord-tennant relationship within the
community.  I know that there are some communities that mix
owners and renters, but are any of the rental units owned by other
residents?  Have any other groups encountered this issue?

Steve Gaarder                                     Ecovillage at Ithaca
gaarder [at] anarres.ithaca.ny.us
...!cornell!batcomputer!anarres!gaarder