Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Housing for 50+

[Kathy Buck (kkbuck]

I am involved with a group trying to create an senior/elder cohousing 
community in the Chapel Hill, NC area.We are group of about 12 people 
from 52 to 75 with most of us around 60 who have been meeting for about 
6 months ( actually some of us have been meeting for about 1 year but 
there was a split in the original group over location. We wanted urban 
the others suburban.  When I checked into the fair housing laws my 
reading was that one person in a household had to be 55 or older for 
there to be an age limitation.  On the issue of affordability. I think 
that the Elderspirit Community in Abbingdon Va. _www.elderspirit.net_  
provides a good model for addressing this issue. They have an outreach 
project and are developing a handbook to help others forming 
communities.  Our group is one of the ones they are helping.  Also when 
addressing affordability more than just the cost of the housing should 
be taken into consideration.  What about transportation, utilities etc. 
We are looking at urban sites even though they are more expensive 
because an urban site will allow us to build more densely and reduce or 
even eliminate our need for cars and allow for the possibility of mixed 
use so those of us who want to work can have on site businesses. We are 
also considering having an adult day care center on site and maybe a 
childcare center both of which are needed in our area. Who knows if this 
will all happen but that's the direction we are going now.

Kathy Buck