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

[peggyjo8592 (peggyjo8592]

Hi all, 

My name is Peggy Johannes.  I live in Three Trails Co housing.  We are in the 
early stages of forming our community.  The property has been purchased, and 
was previously zoned for multiple dwellings.  Currently there are several 
rental properties, one of which my friend and I live in.  It is a pre-civil war 
stage coach inn.  The common house is a 1900's Vintage house, it is currently 
being remodeled.  We currently have several rental properties available.  
We are unsure how to get the word out, and get people interested in the 
community.  We are planning a 4th of July BBQ, and watching a local fire works 
display.  Which is set up 1 block away from our community.  Any suggestions 
would be welcome.  I do know that several people are turned off by the amount 
of remodeling work which is going on.  I don't know may be they are unable to 
visualize the potential.  I'm attaching some photos of our work in progress.

Thanks so much...

--- On Sun, 4/5/09, David Heimann <heimann [at] theworld.com> wrote:

From: David Heimann <heimann [at] theworld.com>
Subject: [C-L]_ Pioneering/Building in Disadvantaged 
Neighborhoods/Gentrification
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Date: Sunday, April 5, 2009, 4:08 PM



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
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