Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing and Intentional Community

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Cohousing is a very specific type of intentional community, with very
specific prescriptions, some documented, others by example and design.
Intentional Community is a broad umbrella, there are dozens of kinds of
intentional communities, so in referring to non-cohousing communities it is
easiest just to refer to them as intentional communities. Technically to
differentiate it would be more correct to say something like, non-cohousing
community forms.

For example, a religious commune is not, and can not be cohousing, since
income and asset sharing is specifically not part of the cohousing
definition as created by the national cohousing organization (I forget
exactly what they are calling themselves these days). It is unofficially not
OK to have a spirituality requirement in cohousing, although that was not
part of the official definition last time I checked. Also private ownership
is not part of the official definition, although as far as I know of, 100%
of all cohousing is privately owned.

For exactly the details of what the official description of cohousing is see
www.cohousing.org  I am sure that definition is up there somewhere.

Having traveled around the US visiting and exploring all kinds of
communities I find There are several interesting differences. For example,
most cohousing groups are larger than 20 people, most non-cohousing
intentional communities are smaller than 20 people. In fact, in the last ten
years cohousing accounts for a huge percentage of new communities formed
with over 50 people. All cohousing groups are bank financed, few other
intentional communities forms are bank financed. All cohousing groups
maintain private income, about 45% of other kinds of intentional communities
require income sharing at some level or another. The average price of a
cohousing unit is over $100,000, the average price of other intentional
Community housing is well under that. Few cohousing groups have rigid time
requirements for community participation, most other community forms have
such requirements. The average life span of a non-cohousing community is
very short, I would guess about 75% of all non-cohousing intentional
community startups, fail by five years. So far, I know of only one cohousing
community which stopped being a community, so the track record for cohousing
is 95% success at this point, although I think there are a couple of places
that might be on the brink of falling apart.

A very surprising discovery  is that the sense of community connection,
people to people, is high in many cohousing groups, in fact, higher than
many other kinds of community I have visited. So for all the critiques of
cohousing being Yuppies playing community, cohousers build bonds and work
together as well as, or better than, some other models of community.

It is my opinion, that because of the high economic requirements and
stability that mortgages require, the really dysfunctional people that often
plague other types of community do not gain entrance into cohousing, since
their dysfunctional behaviors often preclude them from holding a job
sufficiently long enough to qualify for a mortgage. After doing process work
in about 100 different communities I have seen some really messed up people
in non-cohousing community, and these people can, and often do, tear the
community apart. So having an economic barrier of private ownership of
market rate housing is, in some ways at least, a blessing in disguise.

Cohousers have their issues and problems, but they seem to survive them very
well.

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 Guy Koehler,
Rivendell Ranch
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 6:50 AM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: Re: [C-L]_Rural Co-operative: co-housing, organic ranching and
farming


Thank you for the tip and address.

Why do you speak of intentional community as different from cohousing? From
what I've read so far, they seem identical.

Guy Koehler
Rivendell Ranch
www.geocities.com/rivendell_ranch

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