Cohousing-L Mailing List: community development corporations

[Michael Omogrosso (omo]

on target reply to Rob's post, Buzz.  While I have been on sabattical 
from school and community land trust to have a baby, househusband his mom 
through her recovery and enjoy a week of the Oregon Country Fair, my 
brain has been ruminating over just this issue. 

Seems a developer is the way to go. This way the wheel of civic protocol, 
state land use ordinances, and funding contacts need not be reinvented. 
Yet doing it ourselves is so darn appealing and empowering.

There is a model that could be adapted--community development 
corportations (CDC). 

Here in eugene we have one, Neighborhood economic deveolpment 
corporation (NEDCO), which has a paid staff and director and a passle of 
vollunteers and interns as well as a board with key community people and 
residents of various housing projects.  while the focus of this group now 
is low-income housing purchase programs, the direction could just as 
easily be broadened to middle income or more upscale developments such as 
the majority of the COHO represent.

As a non for profit organization funds recouped from the upscale projects 
could be diverted into more modest ones within the grasp of the piss 
poor. The projects could even be transition low-income rental, limited 
equity COHOs like East Blair where I live, orthe profits could subsidize 
low-income families in each COHO develoment.

This organization could be national or international quite like habitat 
for humanity.

Interested?

Michael Omogrosso
East Blair Housing Cooperative
864 W. 4th Ave. #3, Eugene, Oregon 97402, USA
omo [at] darkwing.uoregon.edu    541-344-8444
photographer, community land trust advocate