Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Charge People as Households or Individuals

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jul 12, 2006, at 4:21 PM, Catya Belfer-Shevett wrote:
> > I am part of an emerging cohousing community in Richmond, Virginia. 
> > We are at the stage of possibly signing on with a developer. There is 
> > an initial assessment of our needs/liabilities/strengths, for this we 
> > are being charged a fee that we all agree is quite reasonable.
> > Where we have diverging views is around whether to charge people per 
> > household (no matter the number of occupants), or as individuals. Has 
> > this issue come up?What have you all done about this?
>
> What we have done is allow people to contribute whatever amount they
> want, by household, that will then be credited toward the cost of their
> unit.

I think this is a very good idea. Even better is to assess each 
household a set amount that will be credited toward their home purchase 
and used for various things like charrettes, marketing, etc. Then you 
have a fund to which each household has contributed to equally and 
receives equal benefit. But household is the best way to do these 
things because after you move in, in all likelihood, it will be 
households you are dealing with, not people.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org