Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing's target population: single moms?

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

Sheila Braun akaEmma [at] together.net Chittenden County Cohousing of Vermont
is the author of the message below (on Apr 3 ) but due to a problem
(posted from address other than subscribed address),
it was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager:  fholson [at] cohousing.org

Note: Sorry for the delay in forwarding this.  Fred

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Hi.

The fact that some single moms do manage to work on cohousing doesn't really
prove that cohousing is accessible to single moms in general. That's an
attempt prove a general point with a specific example, and it doesn't work.
Anecdotes are properly used to support theories that can be proven through
other means.

If you look at cohousing and find that the membership doesn't reflect the
general population and that it does reflect overwhelmingly a certain
minority, then clearly specific groups are being served more than others.
Pointing to a few exceptions doesn't prove that it isn't so. There's nothing
necessarily wrong with serving a specific population, but we should
acknowledge that that's what is happening.

>From a research point of view, this list is a biased forum for a discussion
about
how cohousing should be done. Most of the members here have been through the
process a certain way. People tend to think that the way they did it is the
best way. Again, there's nothing wrong with that--but we should try to be
aware of our biases.

I'm a single mother who doesn't work. Choosing to work on cohousing means
for me choosing to give my children less attention at times. There are those
who criticize my choice. I wonder about it myself sometimes. If someone came
along and simply developed a cohousing neighborhood all by herself and in
order to make some money, I would move right in with no regrets and start
working on relationships afterwards. Nobody is doing that, though, so I am a
reluctant pioneer here in Vermont.

On the other hand, I read in one of the books that neighborhoods that are
built to function like cohousing by people who won't be living in them tend
not to use the facilities as much. I find this very interesting.

Sheila Braun
Chittenden County Cohousing of Vermont
http://homepages.go.com/~akaemma/chicoco







----- Original Message -----
From: Jose Marquez <marchpower [at] worldnet.att.net>
To: Multiple recipients of list <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
Sent: Monday, April 03, 2000 2:47 PM
Subject: Hmmmm...


> > GREAT.  Tell how busy working people can be involved
> > too.  In case you're going to tell me they need to quit their jobs,
please
> don't.
> > Tell me how the typical single working parent can
> > be involved in creating cohousing in the current model of taking 5 years
> plus
> > to build, inflating the costs of the units.>
>
> Maybe you need to talk to busy, single parents who have done exactly this?
> I have two single moms in my community who could share their success
stories
> with you.  Visit the website and read the family descriptions and ask
> questions.
>
>
> > And of course my favorite pet peeve -- cut the meetings to a minimum so
> that
> > people who work can participate while still having a life outside of
> > cohousing...!
>
> This is a valuable point.   In our community there are those who attend
> every meeting, participate in many committees and put tons of energy into
> the project (including the two working single moms, btw), and there are
> those who are on "sabatical" from coho, rarely attend meetings, and do
very
> little.  So it is possible to find a community to join without having to
> give up your life, so-to-speak.  However, the folks who do little in our
> community feel guilty from time to time that they can't contribute more
and
> plan to take on a lot of stuff once we move in to relieve the hard-core
> folks.  Still....I think that a mix is workable...some folks have
traveling
> jobs, others are out of town for weeks on end, some have illnesses that
> limit them.  And, I believe everyone works in our community....where are
all
> these rich, unbusy, non-working cohousers?  I haven't met one yet.
>
> March
> Duwamish Cohousing
> West Seattle, WA
>
>
>