Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing vs. HOA Communities

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 Pete Holsberg (pjh42verizon.net) wrote:

> From what I've been reading, a cohousing community is one that, like an 
> HOA community of single family houses, owns and manages common 
> properties, and collects dues for that purpose.

> What other ways are cohousing and HOAs alike? Different?

A cohousing community could include a Home Owners Association (HOA) as a
part of it's legal form of organization.  I think the main difference is
that the people who live in a cohousing community moved there to be a part
of the community with which they were already familiar rather than simply
participating in the organization where they happened to buy a house.

The way I stated this represents the extremes and there significant
variations when you get down to specific communities of either type and of
individuals and families.  But in general I would expect cohousing
communities to have significantly higher levels of shared values about how
they wish to live which in turn greatly affects the way their HOA or 
related organization functions.

I don't live in cohousing but have done some organizing where I do live
with cohousing-like goals (basically close cooperation between neighbors)  
in mind.  People who live here did not move here to participate in
cohousing - that makes a huge difference.

Fred

-- 
Loose Lips Deserve Pink Slips. Fire Karl Rove.  
Fred H. Olson  Minneapolis,MN 55411  USA        (near north Mpls)
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