Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Subsidized housing and residents selecting out of cohousing model

[Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (Robsan]

>    Joni wrote: Yes, families came to the meeting cause the houses were
>    way cheap, but those who found the cohousing aspects unappealing, (Do
>    you
>    HAVE to eat community meals? Well no, the meals are voluntary, but most
>    people who do eat at least some of them find that they really are the
>    glue
>    that holds the community together) dropped out before they even filled
>    out a
>    preliminary application. Self-selection out works just as well with
>    limited
>    income people as with the more affluent, I believe. 
>    
>    _________
>    
>    I am wondering what kind of pitch these folks got that made them bail? 
>    There might be some good things to learn from this, about how to
>    present cohousing.  People have NO CLUE what cohousing is, and so what
>    you tell them, and how you tell them about it, define their
>    impressions.  My own learnings from giving talks is that the biggest
>    point that people react positively to is the idea of having people as
>    neighbors who know each other and help each other out.  The least
>    positve cohousing thing people react to is community dinner. 
>    Architecture seems pretty neutral as far as first impressions goes
>    other than kid friendly pedestrian setups which get very favorable
>    reactions from parents.
>    
>    I am going to give a talk tonight and so I am going to poll the
>    audience about the things about cohousing they find most appealing and
>    least appealing, sort of an exit poll after the presentation.  Maybe a
>    good thing to do around a bigger scale and then collate?
>    
>    Rob Sandelin 
>    Sharingwood
>    
>        
>