Cohousing-L Mailing List: CoHousing, Elitism, $300,000 homes, 'Ordinary' people

[Jack Wilbern, RA (butzwilb]

Hi Anne, 

My name is Jack Wilbern and I'm a member of the Blueberry Hill CoHousing
group in Vienna, Virginia.  I have also been reading the CoHousingL list
and especially the elitist lifestyle or public good section with great
interest.

Two thoughts:

In some sense isn't cohousing an idea that is applicable to many groups
of people, regardless of the obvious; like gender, race, beliefs,    but
also income ? 

Aren't people that make a little more money, and lead frantic lives,
even more likely to benefit from an extended community for mutual
support?  

Granted, there is a gamble for these frantic folk, since no one can know
whether the effort required will be sustained for the long term? but
then no one can say for sure what the 'right' or 'required' level of
effort is to sustain a small community for the long haul. I think there
was an interesting point made earlier in this section that without some
systemic or larger scale, societal and economic imperative, any small
community is at risk. But I digress?

My second thought was on costs and relativity?we're struggling in our
group to cap all costs at between $200,000 and $240,000 per unit. To put
this in context however, Vienna is a suburb in Fairfax County just
outside Washington DC, with a median income of over $50,000 and an
average county home cost of $220,000, and within our locale the average
house cost is in the $300,000 to $400,000 range. (next door is even at
$700,000 per home !!!! )

So, in one perspective, our neighbors think we're low cost shacks (at
worst) or 'affordable dwelling units' (at best). Our perspective is that
this is going to be a real stretch.

Our development costs, in an effort to do the right thing, are high
because we're putting in a long road and utility tie-in, so that we're
building on the 'worst' part of the site, at least from a farming
perspective.  The owners of the farm have valued the land very low for
our benefit and their own since some of them are going to be members?and
its still going to be tight.

I guess where I'm going with this is that each cohousing project is
going to be different based on their location, the makeup of the members
and the costs either forced on them or chosen by them.

Is it reverse elitism to claim that just because one project is more
expensive, relative to your income, than another, that these aren't
'ordinary' people ?  I would encourage you to meet the people involved
in our group we seem ordinary to me. In fact, I don't think any of us
are raking in the big bucks, although we're certainly working the hours.

And that's why this workaholic, for one, wants to live in CoHousing. I
deeply and truthfully need it for balance in my life and I am willing to
work hard for that too.



Jack Wilbern, RA
McLean, Virginia