Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Size of Community

[Bonnie Fergusson (fergyb2]

    I live in Swans Market Oakland, CA cohousing
community.  We have 20 units one of which is rented
(owner moved in with girlfriend in a nearby Cohousing
community)and one other owner typically rents a room
out plus another couple often has a foreign student
living with them for months at a time.  This feels
like a cozy size, any smaller and I would worry about
having enough people to get the necessary work done
(sometimes feels like a stretch now), much larger and
it's harder to maintain the sense of intimacy with
your neighbors which is the heart of what we all love
about cohousing.  I've been involved in many other
groups over the years, some live in situations, some
not and my personal opinion is that about 25 plus or
minus a few is perfect.
    As for the subdividing/ renter issue.  We have had
mostly very good luck with the renters who have been
here.  Most have been interested in Cohousing and
participated in the community.  The foreign students
don't participate in the shared work much but make
interesting dinner companions for the most part.  We
once rented a room to a Ukrainian in a wheelchair for
three months who was in the US studying disability
access issues and this community was a godsend for him
because it is designed to be accessible to folks in
wheelchairs.  He participated quite a bit in the
community even to helping cook common meals in spite
of the fact that he had never cooked in his life
before (he emailed his mother and got recipes and
advice from her).  We got to be fairly close and miss
him still.
    Good luck in your future development.  I suspect
that you will find, as we did, that renters often turn
out to be people interested in cohousing who are not
quite ready or able to buy in yet and make good
community members.  Right now there seem to be more
folks interested in the idea then there are places
available.  If we ever really saturate the housing
market with cohousing communities that might change I
suppose, but people need spaces for their aging
relatives and adult children in crises to be able to
rent too.
                 Bonnie Fergusson



        
                
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we. 
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail