Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: question from a grad student

[Mark Richardson (shanirichardson]

You bring up some interesting points, my understanding of co-housing is that 
it is not necessarily suited for "low-income" housing projects.  It is 
certainly a "life style" choice.  I work with a very strong non-profit 
agency that develops low income housing in Rural areas. (we work actively in 
the State of Washington thru our Lacy office) and the question of co-housing 
comes up in our "self-help" programs.  To my knowledge, only a project in 
the Holister, California area used co-housing, and that was for agricultural 
working mothers.  Our staff works closely with groups in the development and 
construction of their homes, but find most folks want their own, independent 
home. Some of the models we use to develop afforable housing can work in the 
city, the most important piece is the cost of real estate..
I live near a city co-housing group, the South Park, in Sacramento, 
California, and their units are at market or higher for similar homes in the 
area, without some of the amenties the other homes have, such as garages.
If you have questions, please contact us via our web page at www.rcac.org
mahalo


>From: "E. Rice" <lizrice [at] u.washington.edu>
>Reply-To: lizrice [at] u.washington.edu
>To: Multiple recipients of list <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
>Subject: question from a grad student
>Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 18:05:50 -0500
>
>Hi,
>I'm a graduate student at University of Washington School of Public
>Affairs. I'm in a policy class, and a group of us are looking at issues of
>housing and low-income affordability. I, in particular, am looking at
>cohousing as an option for the city to get more behind in terms of
>low-income housing development. I know many cohousing groups seek
>diversity of all kinds, including income diversity, but I'm wondering how
>well you feel it works, and how city incentives to create affordable
>housing as part of the cohousing unit help or inhibit its creation. I'm
>also wondering how those who are part of the cohousing movement in general
>feel about the ability of cohousing to address issues of availability of
>low-income housing options, especially in cities such as Seattle in which
>real estate prices have increased to the point where it is difficult to
>maintain affordable housing.
>
>Hope you don't mind me posting to this email list. I would love any input
>anyone has on this matter.
>
>Thanks for your time
>
>Liz Rice
>
>
>

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