Cohousing-L Mailing List: Affordability/diversity/housing for the poor/rich, etc.

[Elizabeth Stevenson (tamgoddess]

I just want to point out that very few groups have actually got affordable
units for low and moderate income people. On the whole, cohousing has
sacrificed housing for the poor for speed of development. There's no reason
they shouldn't, if that goes along with their priorities.

All this talk about everyone in cohousing bending over backwards to develop
low-income housing is a load of crap. Just because it has been discussed,
paid lip service to, and whined about, does not make it so.

Cohousing is not for everyone. I don't see why we should apologize for that,
whether it's someone who doesn't have the means, or someone who thinks they
need more than cohousing can provide. Groups decide what's best for the
group, and when you get into making special allowances for individuals (with
the exception of disabled access), you get into trouble. What happens
if/when that person leaves the group, their unit unsold? Who will buy this
unit with executive/rock star accoutrements?

I once read an interview with a celebrity who said, "It's a whole lot easier
for a person to go from coach to first class than the other way around." It
is extremely difficult for a person to give up a certain level of comfort. I
think that far more rich people have given up on the idea of cohousing
because they'd have to move down to coach than because it didn't meet their
actual needs.

To be fair, I don't have any experience with rich people wanting to get into
cohousing. 
-- 
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California
tamgoddess [at] attbi.com

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