Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Communities with a low-cost/affordability focus?

[Jerry McIntire (jerry.mcintire]

Dane, we have a rural project which is not built yet. We do have land.
Homes will be affordable intrinsically and by subsidy for some units.

Lots will vary in price ($35,000 - 50,000), this will be the big cost but
it will bring many common facilities: community kitchen and DR, guest
rooms, laundry, child playroom and playground, perhaps office space,
workshop, gardens, fruit and nut trees, chicken club, carports, greywater
system.

A house with a shared well and composting toilet can be quite low cost here
(septic systems are costly). We have no zoning (just outside the city
limits), so there is no minimum size for occupancy. The state building code
applies (Wisconsin) but that isn't costly to meet.

We are partnering with the Partnership for Affordable Cohousing (PFAC) and
a local housing agency (Coulee Cap) to build owner-occupied and rental
affordable units: perhaps six of our fifteen homes.

Jobs? Pay is not high here but nearly everyone has a job, so they're
available. Organic Valley, the largest organic farmers cooperative, is
headquartered here as are three organic certifying businesses and Fifth
Season growers co-op, Maple Valley organic maple syrup co-op;  S&S Cycles
(motorcycle parts), and everything associated with the county seat:
Courthouse, hospital, etc.

Bottom line: A new (one bedroom) home in a cohousing community for less
than $100,000 is possible, and that's affordable by most definitions.

Jerry

-- 
Jerry McIntire
Stone's Throw Ecovillage, in the heart of Wisconsin's beautiful Driftless
region
http://stonesthrowcommunity.wordpress.com/
1-608-637-8018


On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 6:39 PM, Dane Laverty <danelaverty [at] gmail.com> 
wrote:

>
> Yeah, I want to find a low-cost housing solution that relies on intrinsic
> cost reduction rather than other people's generosity.
>
> I like the idea of getting a tiny house (<400 sq. ft.) and living simply
> and cheaply. However, a lot of home ownership costs are due to permitting,
> land, taxes, and infrastructure development. This means that reducing
> construction costs only has a small impact on the overall cost of home
> ownership.
>
> I hope these aren't intractable problems. In searching for "tiny house
> cohousing" I found the Napoleon Complex
> <
> http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/napoleon-complex-community-tiny-house-movement.html
> >.
> This is a project that is using RV park zoning laws to create a low-cost
> cohousing community. I don't see any recent updates on the project, so I'm
> not sure if it's still active.
>
> Dane
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Catya Belfer <catya [at] pobox.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > From where I sit, the biggest question about affordable cohousing is who
> > foots the bill.  Rented from a non-profit is great, but you need the
> > non-profit, or SOMEONE with deep pockets, to subsidize.
> >
> >      - cat
> >
> > Catya Belfer   -  www.catya.org
> > Technical Director   -   www.cohousing.org
> > Cohousing in MA - www.mosaic-commons.org
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
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> >
> >
> >
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