Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Why cohousing should not be mission driven to be affordable housing

[Robyn Williams (zen]

(Sorry Rob, I meant this to go to the list.)

I appear to be living in one of the few rental based cohousing projects in
the world, so please remember Pinakarri Community as a drop in the ocean of
possibility.  We have on site, 8 publicly funded rental homes (our common
house was built by trimming the construction budget for each rental house)
and 4 privately owned homes.  We also having members and supporters living
next door and near-by in owned or rented houses. The driving energy was
primarily from potential renters; a remarkable percentage stuck it out for
the 8 years it took to get housed.  Our mission is based on commitment to
community as family and sustainability (urban style).  All residents, as
members of the co-operative not-for profit association, manage the rental
houses.  We have an accountability and reporting responsibility via the
Ministry of Housing, a state department.  It takes some effort to keep the
bureaucratic fist from squeezing too tight.

This was all possible because 12 years ago, the slightly-left-of-centre
Federal Govt of the time, initiated a Community Housing Programme with a
co-operative housing component and a commitment to promoting tenant
involvement in development, design and construction.  It was good luck that
the architect (also our architect and local hero) applied cohousing design
principles to the first rental co-op, although they don't 'live' cohousing
(the common house is a resource for the co-op tenants rather than the centre
of a collective life-style).  Their mission remains tenant managed,
affordable rental housing with security of tenure and is successful.

What am I saying?  Any variation upon the theme is fine with me so let's not
lock the definition into a narrow albeit dominant category.  I don't love
the idea of cohousing that looks like a gated community but it's only one
step along the range of interpretations and clearly most coho folk have a
sense of social responsibility.  People will do the best they can, driven by
the desire to fulfil personal priorities - that's all that I'm doing.
Perhaps the increased security and communal support that even the most
apparently self-serving coho group achieves may enable residents to take the
next step towards social justice.  Or maybe not.

Warmest regards
Robyn Williams
Pinakarri Community
Fremantle, Western Australia

"Through Pinakarri - deep listening - we learn to love more completely."