Cohousing-L Mailing List: Other communities

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Just one example, the APEX belltown COOP has  affordable living situations
right in the middle of the City of Seattle. They are one of three or four
coops that I know of in Seattle, that are designed around affordable living.
I know at least two of the coops would LOVE to have long term committed
members. Each has its own flavor and setup. Walnut St. Coop in Eugene is
another  which comes to mind, there are 4-5 others in that town, including
DUMA which has been around for considerable time. Then out of town are
places like Lost Valley Educational Center, or Alpha Farm which has been
going since the 60's. All these places are non-home ownership models. They
vary from Urban hip to Country hippy. And they are just a small handful of
those I happen to know about in the Pacific Northwest. There are over 200
communities in the State of California alone! These are existing places many
of which have openings for the right people. Which one is right for you?

There is a sort of class issue about cohousing, because its private home
ownership, that offers a certain level of middle-class niceness and
conformity. We want the house in the suburbs, with nice kitchens and our own
reserved parking space, and we don't want to share a bathroom thank you very
much. This is not a bad thing, but it is a definition. And  it seems people
who can't afford the nicely laid out, architect designed, multi-million
dollar model of community are not interested in living where they share a
house. So that is the choice they make, as if cohousing were the only way,
and since I can't do that, we will live alone instead.

There was once a cohousing group that formed in Portland, never found land,
never developed any housing. But from what I was told, they all (most of
them) became great friends, and share revolving dinners, childcare and
outings together. They have a nice community, and they never built a thing,
although I understand 4 of them all moved into a similar area of town to be
closer to one another. This seems a whole lot better than nothing, since
community was the point, not housing development.

For awhile there was a thing called neighbor nets which connected like
minded people in neighborhoods around Seattle. I think it is still going on,
I've just dropped out of that loop and no longer keep track.

The Good enough Community spend something like 25 years, building community
among themselves before tackling the arduous process of creating a housing
development for themselves. I am sure there are many other examples of
people who create community without having to building multi-million dollar
development projects. And of course, there are a few multi-million dollar
projects that are not doing so hot as communities. So if you want it, its
within your reach. You just have to reach.


Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous [at] msn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]On Behalf Of Forbes Jan
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 4:29 PM
To: 'cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org'
Subject: RE: [C-L]_Re: [C-L] Median or mode, Wealth & Poverty [was What
is wealth?]



Rob

I'm not sure this is in response to my spiel.  However I would be interested
to know about the other co-operative communities in the US for people on low
incomes.  I assume you're inviting me to check out the intentional
communities web site.  There are so many communities there that I wouldn't
know where to start or how to get a clear picture of what they can offer.

While home ownership has been the goal of most Australians for the past 50
years I agree it's not the only solution to achieving an appropriate
standard of secure and affordable housing.

Home ownership is declining here, particularly with younger people who are
moving in to home ownership later in life than previously.  There is debate
as to whether this (and the decline in child bearing) is a lifestyle choice
or primarily an issue affordability and employment insecurity coupled with
large bills for tertiary education through the Higher Education Contribution
Scheme, HECS, or hex as a friend and colleague calls it.  Two of my children
are buying houses in Sydney but the size of their mortgages precludes any
thought of children.

Many years ago I came across a body of research in education that found when
people anticipate failure at something they tend not to choose it, a wise
choice when it comes to housing and to child bearing.  However it appears to
me to be a very constrained choice.  No doubt this is affecting young people
there too.  I noticed on the news last night that employment in the US is
continuing to dip, despite a cut in interest rates.

In Australia these days the main alternative to home ownership is
increasingly the private rental market where people who are already
disadvantaged face the constant challenge and insecurity of rising rents and
constant moves from one insecure 'home' to another.  A few years back I
spoke to a young woman who in her growing up years had moved about 40 times.
No surprise that she and her mother had stress-related illnesses.

My dream is to have more non-profit and co-operative housing to fill the
growing gap in housing need.  Hard to achieve though without strong
government support.  The push at present is for private investors to do it.
Not much chance of that when there's no profit in it.

Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Sandelin [mailto:floriferous [at] msn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 9 April 2003 6:56 AM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: RE: [C-L]_Re: [C-L] Median or mode, Wealth & Poverty [was What
is wealth?]



Home ownership is not available to everyone. There are many people who will
not be homeowners ever, some might be next year if things go right, some
might be in ten years. My 21 year old niece who works and lives a wonderful
ski bum life will not be a home owner next year, even if she had the money.
It's not something she wants to do.

There are those who really want to live cooperatively but don't have the
economic credentials to be homeowners, thus cohousing is a limited option.
However, there are still 872 other communities around the USA which they
could become involved with, which do not require home ownership. Odds are
there is a non-cohousing community within 50 miles of you.

Cooperative living at lower income and simplier lifestyle levels is
available all over. I would encourage you to check it out. Cohousing is only
one type of community, there are many others.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous [at] msn.com


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