Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: A p.s. to Mandel's piece on politics and coho

[Bruce Koller (bkoller]

After reading Judith Wisdom's heartfelt message about issues of 
affordability, I had to respond with my take on that whole thing.  I 
think that the first 10 years of building cohousing communities in the 
U.S. is going to consist of middle class and higher income folks making 
the pioneering (new construction) coho developments happen.  I envision 
coho becoming more widespread and more affordable as non-profit and govt. 
housing entities become familiar with this model.  Perhaps we will see a 
policy of govt. loans for coho communities that follow affordability 
guidelines as I understand happened in Denmark.

My group, Old Oakland Cohousing, is working with a for-profit/non-profit 
partnership to make our community part of a mixed use project in downtown 
Oakland.  I think a number of affordable housing providers, like Habitat 
for Humanity, are looking very closely at the cohousing model and 
this is a very hopeful sign for the near future.  I know it's frustrating 
for people who want to have cohousing now but can't afford it.  I just 
want to say that we should all realize that we are part of a process that 
is going to unfold over the next several decades and we shouldn't be too 
hard on those affluent enough to struggle with the banks, the planning 
depts. and the rest of the real estate world to get the first examples 
built.  I also liked the suggestion about having downstairs flats to 
provide affordable rental units.  We do need to be creative if we want to 
make cohousing available for more people.

Bruce Koller
Old Oakland Cohousing Group
Oakland, CA
bkoller [at] viking.dvc.edu