Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Affordability - For development

[Pablo Halpern (phalpern]

Rob's point about the difficulty in getting development financing is right 
on the mark. I think the reason there is not more lower class or 
lower-middle class cohousing is not that cohousing *must* be more expensive 
than conventional housing but that people in these classes do not have the 
financial muscle to get it built, since that requires so much risk money. 
Ask any poor person who has tried to start a business if banks are willing 
to loan them the money.

The result is that the people who succede at building cohousing (to date) 
are mostly people who *want* to live in middle or upper-middle class 
housing. It is not these people's fault that they *want* more expensive 
housing, nor is it the fault of the cohousing concept.

Hopefully retrofit cohousing will begin to impact this pattern. It may also 
get easier to build lower income and mixed income cohousing when developers 
get more involved, since developers are the ones who usually take the 
financial risk. 

- Pablo

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Pablo Halpern              (508) 435-5274         phalpern [at] world.std.com

New View Neighborhood Development, Acton, MA
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