Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Group Forming need advice

[nathan schomber (wanderlustbus]

Thanks Catya, for your suggestion. I checked  it out a little.
  At least on the surface, it doesn't seem that a coop would be what we're 
looking for.
   
  Here are some quotes from the National Association of Housing Cooperatives 
website.
   
   
      "The main distinction between a housing co-op and other forms of 
homeownership is that in a housing co-op you don't directly own real estate. 
But if you don't own real estate, what exactly are you buying? You are buying 
shares or a membership in a cooperative housing corporation. The corporation 
owns or leases all real estate."
   
  This wouldn't work for us as we want to own with title our individual 
parcels. That's why we like about cohousing. Also from that website:
   
           "Are co-ops allowed to discriminate?
Like any other form of housing, cooperatives may not discriminate based on the 
protected classes listed in the Fair Housing Act, which includes race, color, 
religion, sex, familial status, national origin, or disability. Historically, 
the basic cooperative principles include both open membership without 
restriction as provided by law and non-partisan in politics and non-sectarian 
in religion." 
   
   
  Our group would never discriminate based on those factors. Indeed we welcome 
diversity of race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, or 
disability. What would be determining factors for membership would be shared 
values and lifestyle implementation of those shared values. We want to be 
surounded by folks who embrace caretaking of the Earth, low impact and 
sustainable stewardship of the land. Dedication to living permaculture 
principles.  Folks endeavoring to produce more than they consume. Because we'll 
be living and working together most of our time, we need to be able to select 
members we feel fit with our goals and lifestyle. But, from the above quote, I 
gather that co-ops are in the same boat as cohousers with regards to not being 
able to select members. I don't see how a housing co-op would would be the 
answer in that respect.
   
  Maybe there are co-op variations but it still seems that the cohousing model 
might be the closest for our puroses. Peace to You- Nathan
   
   
   
  
Catya Belfer-Shevett <catya [at] homeport.org> wrote:
  Sounds like you want a co-op; depending on what state you are in you 
will have better or worse luck with financing.

- catya


nathan schomber wrote:
> Thanks for the info so far!
> 
> I'm curious if anyone has experience or knowledge of different ways to set up 
> a legal structure whereby a group still has full control over membership/"who 
> buys in" while still qualifying for bank loans. Is 'first right of refusal" 
> an option that actually works. Have groups successfully used it? If so what 
> were the general circumstances. It seems that there are opposing views on 
> this. Maybe there are other options?
> 
> If our group decided that we could forgo bank financing, would that give us 
> the legal power to select our members? I'm wondering if it must be a choice 
> of the two- either no banks and we can have control or involve banks and we 
> lose control?
> 
> I've read a lot of posts about how many CH's are set up to self select and 
> have read about how that seems to work pretty well. However, the majority of 
> our group is really concerned about wanting to have full say over who joins; 
> IE our group wants to have that control. This is because our group plans to 
> be more closely associated with each other than most coho'ers. Our plan 
> involves setting up a business(es) together so we don't have to work outside 
> of the community although participation is optional(one can work where they 
> choose). We are shooting for a closer group dynamic, probably more like some 
> intentional communities than most cohousing groups. Since we already share a 
> majority of our lifestyle/ cultural views and will be living and working 
> together daily for a majority of our time, it is very important that we are 
> able to choose carefully who joins us in the future.
> 
> For some more general info: Our system involves elements from several models- 
> cohousing, intentional communities and ecovillages.
> 
> For example- from cohousing: the balance of privately owned parcels 
> (individual homes) and communally shared space (community center/common 
> house, school,workshop, etc.) 
> 
> From intentional communities: Sharing a livelihood-working together in 
> (optional) communal business(es), also schooling our own children,etc. 
> 
> From ecovillages: We'll be rural. We desire to grow/raise as much of our own 
> food and consumables. We will utilize solar, water, wind, biofuels to become 
> as energy self-sufficient as possible.
> 
> I'm also wondering if there are any other groups out there like this.
> 
> Any feedback is greatly appreciated by our group! Thanks
> Peace to You- Nathan
> 
> 
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-- 
Catya Belfer-Shevett 'This is not the .sig you're looking for.'
catya [at] pobox.com 'You can go about your business.'
'Move Along.'

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