Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Affordable cohousing

[Brian Bartholomew (bb]

Mydlack, Daniel J. <dmydlack [at] towson.edu> writes:

> I have been organizing in Baltimore for the past year. I've phoned
> many of the biggies in the cohousing 'industry' that is
> emerging. Architects, Programmers, Quasi-Developers and
> others. EVERYBODY says it can't be done for less than, as it turns
> out, half a million a family. End of conversation.

And they're right.  In your location it is illegal to build houses for
less than that.

> Is [affordable cohousing] a small, niche online group for the haves
> and their helpful service industry or is this a way to innovate
> towards something more meaningful for a bit wider populace?

Homefront is $35K for the kit and $70K built.  Affordable housing for
the wider populace is merely illegal, not impossible.  In my area the
Golden Girls arrangement is illegal because there are too many
unrelated adults under one roof.  Home center stores exist because a
broad swath of the populace chooses to ignore all the laws related to
housing.  While new coho construction in Venice, FL is $300K/unit, I
predict we will see more of that.

If you're shopping for locations, you might consider St. Cloud, which
is just South of Orlando.  From the mix of retirees, houses, and
trailers I suspect you could build a really economical senior coho, as
long as it was legally structured as individual house construction.

                                                        Brian