Re: cooperatives and cohousing <– Date –> <– Thread –>

[Joelyn Malone (JKMalone]

I find it so interesting that this topic keeps popping up. Last time it 
surfaced, only a few months ago on Cohousing_L, between us all we 
identified about 6-8 cohousing communities that are cooperatives (in 
California, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Washington if I remember 
right.) There's an interesting page on "Where housing cooperatives are 
concentrated" on the National Association of Housing Cooperatives web 
site, http://coophousing.org/. that explains some of why coops are 
clustered in certain areas.

Laws are friendly in lots of the New England states, Middle Atlantic 
states, and Southeastern states plus the Midwest (particularly Michigan 
and Minnesota). There are also clusters in San Francisco and Northern 
California, Washington and Arizona. I found listings for 112 housing 
coops in MI, IL and IN; 80 in MA, and Senior Housing co-ops in 16 states 
by looking at the web sites listed below.

For Liz, I'd suggest you get in touch with New Hampshire Community Loan 
Fund - they are one of the top organizations in the country organizing 
mobile home park residents to buy their parks as cooperatives. They also 
provide loans for all kinds of other cooperatives, and provide technical 
assistance as well. They should be a great source of information for 
housing cooperatives in New Hampshire.

Following are a list of sources for info on Co-operative housing, 
limited equity and shared-equity mechanisms for affordability; and 
places that specialize in financing for cooperatives.

nhclf.org (New Hampshire Community Loan Fund)

weown.net (Information on consumer-controlled housing and limited or 
shared equity including housing cooperatives)

MAHC.coop (Midwest Association of Housing Cooperatives)

http://www.seniorcoops.org/ (Senior Cooperative Foundation)

http://www.canconet.com/ (Canadian Cooperative Network)

http://www.potomacassoc.com/ (Potomac Association of Housing Cooperatives)

http://www.atlantacooperatives.org/ (Southeast Association of Housing 
Cooperatives)

A few miscellaneous sources of Coop Umbrella Mortgages, construction 
loans for cooperatives, and share loans (individual mortgages)
- Share Credit Corporation (financial arm of Southeast Association of 
Housing Cooperatives)  
- New Hampshire Community Loan Fund
- NorthCountry Cooperative Development Fund (ncdf.coop)
and maybe - NCBCI (NCB Capital Impact, formerly a subsidiary of National 
Cooperative Bank) - probably just for share loans, they haven't been 
very helpful to most cohousing communities that have approached them, 
although they did participate in the construction loan for my community 
(Monterey Cohousing in Mpls MN)

Joelyn Malone
CohousingAdvocates.com