Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Encouraging Multigenerational Community

[Raines Cohen (rc2-coho-L]

On 1/27/03 9:34 AM, curcio <curcio [at] cruzio.com> wrote:

>We are a forming Cohousing community in Santa Cruz hoping to be entering an
>agreement in a developer driven project very soon.

Cool! I know a lot of people in the Santa Cruz area interested in 
Cohousing. Are you getting any help from / having contact with the built 
community already there? Is there a particular developer/project you're 
working with?

>  On a visit to another
>cohousing community, we were told that it was benificial to have restricted
>membership to one third families, one third couples and one third singles.

You might find different opinions on this in different groups. And 
remember, people change over time, kids grow up, others marry, partner, 
and/or have kids, so I recommend not approaching it in terms of 
restricting membership but in terms of recruiting for diversity and 
setting goals... in this respect and others.

I'd be interested in hearing how they found it beneficial - I know that 
at least one Bay Area group found that so many single moms were joining 
that they felt it necessary to say "no more" for a bit.

Typically, the core group recruits from friends, so the extended group is 
only as diverse as the core group, and so forth... if you have families, 
then the group will get more families, and so on.

Remember, that discrimination in housing (i.e. unit sales itself) is not 
legal. You can set requirements for joining your education/social and 
investment/development group (i.e. the pre-ownership group), but I 
recommend putting the emphasis on recruiting in places where people you 
want in your group go. Also, keep in mind that your group will lose 
people over time, so try not be doctrinaire, setting quotas and 
whatnot... be open to the energy you find, set minimum requirements that 
make it easy for people who seriously share your vision to demonstrate 
their commitment and support the group.

>There is some interest in our group to this idea but we need more
>information.  I would like to know what experience other groups have had
>with or without this type of arrangement.  Without this restriction, what
>type of membership should we expect?

It depends a lot on the community, the housing market, the location and 
characteristics of your project, and on the core group.

Raines

P.S. If your group could use a visit from experienced Cohousers to talk 
about this and other issues, a bunch of Cohousing Network boardmembers 
would love a an excuse to visit Santa Cruz. Also don't forget Joani's 
tour of Bay Area communities, coming up March 1, is a great opportunity 
to recruit and also provide some common experience to make it easier for 
your members to communicate.

Raines Cohen <my initials,2,dash,coho,dash,L at my first name .com>

  Member, Swan's Market Coho [Oakland, CA] <http://www.swansway.com/>
Where I've had several eager prospects visit in the past few days to rent 
my unit, our first full unit to be rented out.

  Member, Berkeley [CA] Cohousing (moving shortly)
Where my partner and I are supposedly the first since the founders to buy 
a unit without living/renting there - it helps that I know already know 
most of my future neighbors!

  Facilitator, East Bay Cohousing [on hiatus] <http://www.ebcoho.org/>
Looking into participation with TCN in the Whole Life Expo this Spring.

  Boardmember, The Cohousing Network <http://www.cohousing.org/>
Chasing down communities that haven't responded to our directory updates.

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