Cohousing-L Mailing List: Affordable Cohousing

[Dan Suchman (71756.2661]

Thanks to those of you who responded to my post of 3/14/95 by this same
reference.  I felt that a few additional words of reply and clarification were
in order:

Jeff Hobson wrote:

Quote:=======================================================

Dan, I'd be very very *very* (can i put another emphasis on - oh yes, VERY)
interested in the results of your research.  

        *       *       *
 
To my knowledge, renting a 3 or 4-bedroom house is about $750-950/month.  By
your definition (25% of 80% of median), that means renting is just barely
"affordable" for a 5-person family.

End Quote.======================================================

Jeff, I am not currently doing any research on this subject.  I was merely
responding to a cohousing-l post by John Reuer, an architecture student at
McGill who is doing the research.  I believe the definition to which you refer
is John Reuer's working definition of an "affordable unit" as one for which
"monthly mortgage payments are less than 25% of the monthly income of a
household making less than 80% of the local median income."  I did not mean to
suggest that making rental units available at market rates would necessarily
make them "affordable".  However, in many areas, including my current
neighborhood, market rental rates are not enough to defray the owner's carrying
costs.  To that extent it becomes cheaper to rent than to own (although under
such conditions relatively few owners choose to rent out their houses to others.
Most are just trying to reduce the expense of carrying a second home).

Jeff also wrote:

Quote:===========================================================

SCHA COHOUSING PROJECT
There is another quasi-cohousing community possibly coming about in Davis,
being developed by a nonprofit organization in town, intended mostly for
low-income single parents.  It is not a resident-determined design, more of
a resident-input design, so doesn't quite match the cohousing definition in
the front of the journal.

End Quote.========================================================

Thanks for sharing this information.  Such a development would fall under the
second type of subsidy that I discussed, "private subsidies from organizations
such as Habitat for Humanity".  Since SCHA is not yet constructed, I suggest
that it is not yet an exception to my generalization that most of the existing
cohousing communities were created by either: (1) government coerced subsidy by
a developer, (2) subsidy by some members of the cohousing community, or (3)
subsidy by an absentee owner of the cohousing unit.

Jeff further wrote:

Quote:============================================================

As to #3, I do not believe that any of N Street's absentee landlords are taking
a financial loss by renting to members of a cohousing community.  In fact, I
believe they may be benefitting from the community, because they have basically
guaranteed occupancy.

End Quote.=========================================================

I did not mean to suggest that all absentee owners who rent their houses to
others suffer a financial loss. I meant merely to suggest that it might be
necessary for such owners to reduce rent and suffer a loss in order to make the
housing "affordable", using John Reuer's definition.

Frank Boosman wrote:

Quote: ==============================================================

When you say "The latter two forms of subsidies are much less diffuse than would
be government or institutional subsidies, thereby placing a larger burden on
individual contributors/donors," you seem to be saying, "I think affordable
cohousing is a great idea, but neither I nor my group can't
afford to provide it." (If I've misunderstood you, please say so.)

End Quote.============================================================

Frank, I did not intend to address the issue of whether my group or I can afford
to subsidize others, and I do not intend to discuss that issue here.  I meant
merely that if a cost (such as a housing subsidy) is divided among a larger
number of people (e.g., the taxpaying population of the US), then the individual
burden is smaller than if the same cost is divided among a smaller number of
people (e.g., the 12-30 households of a cohousing community or even the several
thousand members of some charitable organizations).

Frank also wrote:

Quote:=================================================================

Then you go on to say, "The government coerced subsidy by developers seems
the most promising of the 'private' routes, however it does not necessarily
result in cohousing." This seems to mean--and again, correct me if I'm
wrong--"I think this worthy goal of providing housing to people who can't
afford it should be made possible by the government taxing people who are
buying new homes." Remember, any fees paid by developers will be passed on
to home buyers. Therefore, what you're proposing is to make housing less
affordable for some and more affordable for others (by redistributing
wealth from new home buyers to those who can't afford to buy homes).

End Quote.===============================================================

Frank, by "promising", I meant only that it seems like the most likely to happen
in the near future.  I did not intend to advocate any particular means of
creating affordable cohousing.  I was merely attempting to identify some of the
options.  Obviously, each option will have its advantages and disadvantages for
the various people affected by it.  I agree that these coerced developer
subsidies may have the effect of shifting to the market rate purchasers a
portion of the cost of the subsidized housing. But don't forget that market
forces still limit the extent to which these costs can be shifted (people won't
pay more for the unsubsidized houses simply because these houses were more
expensive to build).  Some of the subsidy probably ends up coming out of the
developer's pocket. 

Also, to the extent that affordable cohousing may become government subsidized,
I did not mean to suggest that the subsidy be funded by a special tax applied
only to homeowners.  What I had in mind was something that spread the burden
more evenly across the taxpaying population, which would, of course require
either spending cuts somewhere else, or increased taxes (of which I am most
definitely not an advocate, in most situations).

Of course, any form of subsidy, whether public or private, redistributes wealth.
Although I do not consider myself a socialist, neither do I consider such
redistribution to be inherently evil (especially if done voluntarily, through
private charitable giving).  But I'd prefer not to argue politics in this
message.

The prolific and learned Rob Sandelin wrote:

Quote:====================================================================

There are dozens of examples of affordable housing, created entirely 
without subsidy around Washington State Dan.  The Love Israel 
community, Teramanto, Wesleyian Community, Windward, Walker Creek 
farm,are a few communities that come to mind that all provide housing 
for very low income people.  These are all member developed intentional 
communities.  Many of them are communes or coops, which were formed by 
a group pooling its resources and working together.  Granted, they are 
not state of the art, condo units with giant common houses, but they 
get by, share community meals, and run very sustainable lifestyles, 
much more so than most Cohousing communities do.  Typically they form 
around a philosophy or ideal and that is the glue that binds them 
together.  They often work together in a community business and share 
the income from that business. [more examples follow]

End Quote.====================================================================

Rob, I love your energy and enthusiasm.  However, I was NOT looking for examples
of affordable  "intentional communities".  I was restricting my comments to
cohousing (This is Cohousing-L, remember?).   Do you know of any examples of
affordable cohousing that were created by some means other than the three that I
outlined?  Do you know of any communities that have qualified for FHA or VA
financing?  I would greatly appreciate any information that you may have in
these areas.

I look forward to hearing any other comments or information that other readers
may have.

Dan Suchman
Winslow Cohousing Group
Bainbridge Island, WA