Cohousing-L Mailing List: Co-housing in the Twin Cities

[Deb Smyre (dsmyre]

Hi, Neighbors! 

I'm in my final quarter of grad coursework (ya-hoo!) at the Univ. of Mn.
School of Social Work, and I'm researching co-housing in the Twin Cities.

Currently, I have three school-related interests in co-housing, so I'd love
to hear from list members on this topic.  First, an assignment for my
advanced human services management class requires me to design a social
service organization.  

Second, I'm also taking an elective on homelessness, so I'd like to design
an organization structured as a co-housing community which addresses the
needs of homeless families (parents and children, not singles).

There's an organization called Elim Transitional Housing, Inc. (in Mpls.
for 15 years) which operates by renting homes or apartments, subletting
them as transitional homes to homeless families, and assisting the families
with education, job-hunting and securing permanent housing.  I'd like to
use Elim as a model for my organizational design, with the one difference
being co-housing instead of single-family homes or apartments.  The funding
for this type of organization is ready-made by the McKinney Act, and grant
funding for homeless initiatives is available.   I'd love some feedback on
this idea, so please feel free to comment and critique.

Thirdly, (and this may be the most important piece since it's 'real-life'
rather than a classroom project) I'll spend 12 weeks in a full-time summer
internship with Anne Long at Plymouth Christian Youth Center in Mpls.,
which will complete my MSW program.  Anne has made plans for me to work
with the group designing the West Broadway corridor business district
revitalization effort as Coordinator.  I'm interested in comparing the West
Broadway plans with the Central Avenue plans, specifically looking at
high-density housing options and the inclusion of co-housing options as
part of the West Broadway plan.