Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Some people don't want to "own"

[Kristen Simmons (simmonskristen]

Ananda,

The beautiful part of cohousing is that you can actually make this happen,
you don't need to just take a stand!

N Street Cohousing in Davis, CA is a retrofit cohousing community, created
over the course of many years (15, perhaps). It started with a couple of
houses, which were "joined" when the owners began to remove the fences
between them. In the past two years, they just built their common house.
Lots of renters live there. I'm sure that someone else on the list can fill
in the details. As I understand it, there are one or two people who had the
energy and passion to make this happen.

I myself am part of a new cohousing community forming in Boston. We want to
be affordable and diverse, and having rental units could be a part of that.
So, what we are trying to do is to figure out how it can be done. Do we have
enough money ourselves to build rental units? Could we pay the mortgages on
those properties (and maintenance and repairs) with the rental income ?
Would be OK to have outside investors who do not live in the community, or
could this potentially lead to a conflict of interest? Frankly, these are
all really big challenges, on top of the really big challenge (and
financial risk) of trying to make our project a reality. Most likely, some
of our units will be rental units after a while, as lives change and
people move.

As for your questions, YES, both are possible! Find real estate investors
who have an interest in community and see themselves as visionaries.
Convince them to buy a building or housing units that have what you think
that you want for your cohousing group and let them rent to you. At the same
time, begin to form a group of cohousing renters who want to live together
in community. You will begin to form community long before you ever move in
to cohousing! Eventually, you will have several households. Think of the
negotiating power that your group will have with rental agents and the
legitimacy that you will have with potential investors. The downside, of
course, is at you could invest a lot of time and energy and not get what you
want. Or, even worse, you get the perfect situation and are happy for years,
but rents become unaffordable, etc.

Good luck!

Kristen
Stony Brook Cohousing, now forming in Boston, MA




_______
Personally, I choose not to have a mortage, and have always chosen to rent.
I frankly don't want the responsibility of "owning" a home. It has nothing
to do with affordability.   So I would like to live in co-housing as a
renter, yet have equal rights.

Why can't a bunch of people buy a building and rent out units as a
co-housing unit?  Or why can't a bunch of renters make a co-house out of
townhouses, or apartments.  Why do we have to live with strangers, because
we are renters? And why do people assume that because you choose a simpler,
stress free life of renting that you can't afford to buy a house?

Just taking a stand.

Thanks,
Ananda