Cohousing-L Mailing List: Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods/Gentrification

[David Heimann (heimann]

Hi Cora,

	Our units wound up being priced for around the cost of most new 
condo construction in Jamaica Plain, and prices for the developments 
around us were mostly higher, so we didn't gentrify the neighborhood all 
that much.  If we hadn't found leachable lead in our land, the 
gentrification would have been even less!

	As far as banks financing our units, we had little or no problems, 
since the pricing was indeed in the community's price range.  We also had 
(have) both formal and informal affordability programs so that a 
significant number in the community did not need be to "households of 
means".

        All the best on your efforts!

Regards,
David Heimann
Jamaica Plain Cohousing


On Fri, 3 Apr 2009 cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:

> Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 21:38:33 GMT
> From: "Cora Roelofs" <corar2000 [at] netzero.com>
> Subject: [C-L]_ Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged
>         Neighborhoods/Gentrification
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Message-ID: <20090401.173833.17281.0 [at] webmail04.dca.untd.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>
> We're in the site search and working with a development partner. I was 
> wondering about any experiences related to developing cohousing in economically 
> disadvantaged neighborhoods.
> I know that Swan's Market played a role in the re-development of downtown Oakland and I'm 
> curious about others' experience with their site selection process and predicting the 
> future of a neighborhood without high housing prices. There are lots of comments that 
> could be brought out about the social issues, but I'm specifically interested in the 
> development and economic issues. And perhaps leaving aside the current crazy real estate 
> situtation. Specifically, can we sell units for what they cost to build in a place where 
> housing prices for other types of housing (even nice housing) are relatively low?  Won't 
> the bank look at our housing prices and compare them to "comparable" units in 
> the area and find them too high? Won't prospective cohousers do the same? This is even if 
> we get cheap land, since construction costs seem still to be high.
> I guess I'd be interested in general comments as well about cohousers "moving 
> in" to poor neighborhoods where most of the cohousers are not poor themselves. And 
> I'm thinking this is a gentrification question as well -- the upsides and the downsides 
> of increasing the average value of housing in a poor neighborhood.
> Cora
> Stony Brook Cohousing
> forming and search in and around Jamaica Plain, MA