Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Non-ownership based Cohousing

[Robert P. Arjet (rarjet]

cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org writes:
>From my understanding and
>learning, the large majority (80%?)of other cohousing groups are setup as
>private ownership models. Certainly that is the case in the US, and much
>of
>Denmark.

I believe the above is true, as far as it goes, but it addresses the
"facts-on-the-ground" version of "what is cohousing" rather than the
theoretical version of that question. 

I'm with Robyn--I've been working under the assumption that cohousing is a
"socio-design concept," a prescription for how people can live in a
certain form of community.  To say that "Cohousing is based on private
home ownership" seems to needlessly limit the idea of cohousing.  Does
that mean that anyone who rents is not a true cohouser?  

Of course, I think it is important to bear in mind how cohousing
communities do, in fact, get built.  We have, in the US and elsewhere, a
relatively standard model of how people can get cohousing from the
talking-about-it stage to the living-in-it stage.  It's important to
recognize that what works, works.  At the same time, cohousers became
cohousers because they were willing to challenge someone else's idea of
what worked.  Although the truth is right now that the vast majority of
cohousers are wealthy homeowners, I can't see a good reason why eventually
this couldn't change.  

Robert Arjet
Central Austin Cohousing
http://www.austincohousing.org

 

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