Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Affordable cohousing

[David L. Mandel (75407.2361]

More in reply to Dan Suchman's doubts as to the feasibility of affordable 
cohousing.

While some of the examples listed in the original query fall in your category 
No. 1, coerced subsidy by developers (I believe Muir Commons' lower-cost units
are a result of this, though I don't think they approach the affordability 
definition of 25% of 80% of median income house payments -- correct me if I'm 
wrong, Muirites) and there are many others living affordably in your own area 
(and others) as Rob pointed out, using sheer ingenuity and frugality .... 
there are some other successes among more "conventional" (!!??) cohousers, 
too, of the type you doubted exist.

There are some -- far too few and now under heavy siege -- government programs
that enable creative use of various funds for affordable housing, and I was 
thrilled to hear in the financing panel at the October Boulder conference that
a number of cohousers have been (not surprisingly) energetic enough to tap 
into them. The tapes from that conference were being offered for sale and I 
recommend that one to anyone interested.

Our own modest example (Southside Park, Sacramento) found $400,000+ in 
tax-increment "redevelopment" money through our local housing agency that was 
advanced to us (along with $330,000 more) during construction, then turned 
into silent second mortgages for 11 of our 25 households, eligible due to low 
or moderate income. Six of those fell under 80% of median and the amount of 
each household's loan was geared to keep their house payments at 28% of 
income.

The cohousing development in Aspen, Colo., got funding from that resort 
community's incredible local tax base for "employee housing," a common 
phenomenon there that was applied to a cohousing group that asked. And in 
Maine, the Kennebec community got money through the Federal Home Loan Bank's 
Affordable Housing Program (we applied, too, but didn't quite make the cut -- 
the amount available is small). AHP buys down loan rates so low-income people 
can afford to purchase or rent.

I know there are others as well. And I really, really hope there will be more.
That depends on how much cohousing organizers are willing to seek out such 
sources of funding -- and whether the few sources that do exist will be able 
to hold out against the invasion of the Newts. Dare I fantasize about trying 
to expand programs of these types? 

Don't whine, organize. Fight greed. Decent housing, co- or not, needs to 
become recognized as a right, not a privilege.