Cohousing-L Mailing List: Unit selection

[Joani Blank (jeblank]

Dear friends, 

I am a member of the Old Oakland CoHousing group, Today I am asking for
advice instead of giving it (one of my annoying habits). 

I believe that most of you living in built or building communities, had
your unit prices (or at least estimates) and were able to make reservations
for particular units well before your group was full, so that new
households could know which units were available at the time of joining,
and could reserve a specific unit upon joining. 

In Old Oakland, our situation is different. We are building 20 units and
just acquired our 20th member household. But we don't yet have unit
prices--though we have fairly close estimates--and our design has not yet
been absolutely finalized nor yet approved by the Department of Real
Estate, so we cannot make official reservations. However, we have done some
mock picks with us each stating our first, second and third choices and
lining all these up on a chart by seniority. There are two or three
households near the bottom of the list, who may end up with no unit that
will work for them which they can afford.

Can you help us with suggestions for an equitable unit selection process?
Unfortunately, the limits of our building don't give us as much flexibility
as might be desirable, and we have 10 different unit types among these 20
units. Some in our group think we should have a mock pick and then discuss
as a group which households are willing to take a second or third choice to
accommodate those lower on the list who otherwise won't be able to live
with us. 

Others (our consultant Katie McCamant among them---Katie, I hope I haven't
misunderstood you) recommend against doing this in the whole group. These
folks think that we should submit our choices in writing to a small ad hoc
committee who should sort things out, and then negotiate individually with
members who could accommodate another member by taking their second choice.
The disadvantage of doing it the other way--in an open meeting--is that
people might feel pressured by the group to switch to their second or third
choice, then later wish they had stuck to their guns and feel resentful for
a very long time thereafter. 

What do you think,?

Joani