Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Carrying on the movement

[Regan Conley (reganconley]

Jessie, after having grown up UU and worked with UU youth for a long  
time, I can tell you a parallel experience.

UUs are not like a lot of religions where they tell you you better  
keep coming or else.  You make your own decisions and set your own  
priorities.  While some college age and young adult folks are around,  
generally, they're too busy studying or sleeping off hangovers or  
having brunch on Sunday mornings to come to church.  So they drift  
and later, when they get married and have children of their own, they  
often find themselves coming back to seek the community.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if we saw a similar pattern with  
Cohousing raised youth.  Many will drift and many will decide to come  
back to cohousing when they are ready to settle into their own homes.

Like UUs, this leaves a smaller group who would stick around if it  
were more accessible to them.  Lots of urban and college-town UU  
churches have had great success with Sunday evening or mid-week  
evening services bringing in younger folks who don't fit into the  
Sunday morning schedule.

In a similar way, people of this age don't fit into the typical  
cohousing plan:  Buy a house.  Most of the them are not ready  
financially or otherwise to buy a house.  They may move from one  
place to another as the go from college to grad school to jobs to  
travel to different jobs.  If cohousing seriously wants to appeal to  
a younger market (generally those in their 20s, say), then it needs  
to be accessible to them.  This probably means rental housing.

So, in my mind the question would be:  How do we expand rental  
opportunities in Cohousing?

Regan Conley
Urban D.C. Cohousing
Washington D.C.


On Aug 12, 2006, at 10:03 AM, Dahako [at] aol.com wrote:

> Hi -
>
> I was talking to my 15-year-old about the conference and she asked  
> why, if
> we were so serious about carrying the cohousing movement forward,  
> we 1) did not
>  have a plan to help the kids raised in cohousing (our best market)  
> to be
> able to  live in cohousing once they leave their parents' homes  
> (affordability),
> and 2)  did not have any conference sessions or national outreach  
> for the
> teens who had  grown up in cohousing and might want to help carry  
> the movement
> forward?
>
> She and I have talked a bit about this, but I figure you all can  
> help me
> answer her. Please.
>
> Maybe she can get her community service learning hours working for the
> Mid-Atlantic Chapter answering her own questions?  What say, Ann Z?
>
> Also, is anyone else having the experience that the kids raised in
> cohousing, who cannot remember anything else, expect to live in  
> cohousing when  they
> are grown?  Or are other kids rebelling?
>
> -Jessie Handforth Kome
> Silver Spring, Maryland
> "Where I'm still finishing my condo's floors in the second year   
> after move
> in.  The Rembrandt concrete stain is gorgeous and holding up  very  
> well except
> under the chair with rolling wheels at the computer.  And  I think  
> this will
> be our first and last stone tile floor (stuff is *heavy*!)  once we  
> get the
> entry hall done."
>
>
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