Cohousing-L Mailing List: Households to Adults Ratios

[pattymara (pattymara]

At Tierra Nueva, central CA coast, our families were mostly among the
early core members like Roger reported for Pathways...and only  a couple
more families with children joined after construction had begun.  The
last half of our members to join were mostly retired seniors who had lots
of equity in their homes (so they could afford to buy the larger units)
and who could be mobile enough to relocate to a new city, again like at
Pathways.

So the numbers for Tierra Nueva are:  45 adults and 24 children  (we have
27 homes)  Somebody else can do the math.

Most of the families with kids are crammed into the smaller 2 and 3 
bedroom homes.  Most of the senior singles or couples luxuriate in 3 and
4 bedroom homes.  Oh well.  The families who were first time homebuyers
were the ones who squeeked through qualifiying for their mortgages.   
Most of the seniors either paid cash or had large down payments.  

We get varying levels of participation from all the age groups, and so
far, after 2 plus years of living here together it really does seem to
level out with time.  True, there is the core of worker bees who show up
for every work day, sign up to cook and clean at meals and serve on
committees faithfully.  But the ages range pretty equally from the busy
young parents through the older ones who have more time because our kids
are older, and on to the seniors (55 - 90).  In fact, our 90 year old
neighbor shows up to work regularly, with a smile on her sweet face. 

But life being what it is there seems to be fluctuating levels of
enthusiasm for participation...and some of it is related to health issues
like depression (which has affected young and old alike).  With time the
ones who needed to pull back and in, have been able to reconnect and
participate.  I'm beginning to trust that folks do come back round as the
larger cycles turn.  

Patty Mara Gourley
Tierra Nueva, Oceano, CA
pattymara [at] juno.com

   

On Sun, 29 Apr 2001 02:03:32 EDT Berrins [at] aol.com writes:
> 
> In a message dated 4/28/01 7:22:40 PM, emccourt [at] mindspring.com 
> writes:
> 
> << So, all this leads me to say that families tend to come
> 
> later in the project cycle, after the location is
> 
> selected, and closer to construction, when the risk is
> 
> lower.
> 
> --eileen >>
> 
> That wasn't the case with Pathways.  There were several families 
> among the 
> early core members.  And while most, if not all, of the families 
> were local, 
> almost all the early members were local.  The mix of households with 
> and 
> without children continued as more and more households joined.  For 
> us, the 
> early members tended to be local, while more out-of-towners came 
> later (many 
> of whom heard about us through our web site).
> 
> Roger Berman
> Pathways
> Northampton, MA
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