Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Elitist lifestyle or public good?

[Rob Sandelin (Floriferous]

I the cohousing movements job to take on affordable housing. It is not a 
problem caused by cohousing. Home ownership will NEVER be available to 
everyone in America. Never has been before, can't imagine it ever will be. A 
very key and very understated defining characteristic of cohousing is that 
there is individual ownership of homes. (or shares).  I think if you remove 
this, you will first lose bank support, then you will lose most public 
support. The number of people that have hundreds of thousands of dollars to 
give away to communities are pretty small, like I can count them on the 
fingers of one hand.

I do agree that cohousing movement should support efforts by groups that want 
to make home ownership available to those who are close but not quite 
available. That's pretty much been accomplished in some places. To try and 
make it a goal of the movement to solve the affordable housing problems of 
America would doom cohousing faster than you can say equity building.

Rob Sandelin
Check out the resources at 
http://www.infoteam.com/nonprofit/nica/resource.html
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From:   cohousing-l [at] freedom.mtn.org on behalf of K. Collins & friends
Sent:   Monday, October 20, 1997 1:48 PM
Subject:        Elitist lifestyle or public good?

To Marci, et al:

Naturally it is better for the middleclass live in cohousing, in some
measure of cooperation. Nonetheless, Marci, cohousing is a visible force
for community, and claims to be community. As such it must take on the
responsibilty of finding solutions to affordable housing and cooperative
work. They are inescapable problems in of our movement.

king




King Collins
296 Gardens Ave.
Ukiah, CA 95482
Phone 707 463-5517 or 707 462-4543
Fax: 707  462-6873
email: greenmac [at] pacific.net