Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Development Phase

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On 22 Sep 2011, at 7:17 PM, R Philip Dowds wrote:

> Our problems today our different ones. One is that we clearly have households 
> of greatly differing financial flexibility. 

This is one reason why I think low income cohousing needs to develop as 
low-income to affordable communities and won't do well as low-income to market 
rate. Income diversity can only stretch so far. The tension between those who 
want the designer upgrade on the CH kitchen and those who can still only afford 
the old sink from the farmhouse is too great. To go to low-income housing 
requires a major paradigm shift.

Most people interested in cohousing are looking for better built, better 
designed, more energy efficient homes that still cost the same as those in the 
neighborhood, or sometimes more. We have one household whose measure for 
whether we need something is from their work in the Peace Corps in Africa. Not 
a standard the rest of us are comfortable with.

We are in the biggest financial downturn since the Great Depression which is 
relatively unique, but it is a constant that almost everyone believes they 
don't have enough money. We have a few members who want us to consider ways to 
help any residents who are having "real" financial difficulties. For me to do 
that I need a standard for means testing. Some of us live on surprisingly 
little money and don't speak up; others talk pain, and keep spending. How 
anyone uses their money will look foolish to someone else.

Eris Weaver has written a very nice little book, Let's Talk About Money: A 
Conversation Guide for Intentional Communities. It includes exercises in which 
a financial problem is described and each person is asked how they would 
respond. It brings out people's different values about money without discussing 
their personal finances. The book can be found here:

http://www.erisweaver.info/books.html

I highly recommend it. She also offers consulting services. 

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org