Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: How do communities deal with members who can't pay their condo fees or assessments?

[fergyb2 (fergyb2]

At Swans Market Cohousing we worried about that issue back in 2008/9 when there 
was that big financial meltdown and two members of our Community got laid off.  
We agreed to create a fund we call the "Can You Spare A Dime" fund which we 
funded by every household pitching in an extra $10 a month for a while.  We 
stopped contributing when we reached $2000.  The fund is available for 
emergency no interest loans to households who might have temporary difficulty 
paying their Condo fees for whatever reason.  It's been accessed at least twice 
and the loans paid back.  We talked about folding the money back into the 
general fund after the economy recovered but in the end decided to keep it as 
is.
                        Bonnie Fergusson
                        Swans Market Cohousing
                        Oakland, CA

Sent from my iPad

On Feb 11, 2016, at 6:08 AM, Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com> 
wrote:

> 
> 
>> On Feb 10, 2016, at 12:39 PM, Judith Adler <judith_adler [at] hotmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>> At Cornerstone we are once again thinking of how much money we should keep 
>> in reserve, and one issue that repeatedly comes up is how we deal with 
>> members who cannot pay increasing condo fees, either because of job loss or 
>> low income. We have 4 non-market rate units and those household pay the same 
>> condo fees according to percent ownership as we all do. 
> 
> I was intrigued with the response from Jamaica Plain that they had these 
> funds but in the end no one used them.
> 
> Not to sound too much like a Scrooge, but I’m more concerned with how to 
> determine that one household needs the money more than another. People have 
> wildly different ways of spending money. 
> 
> I can’t afford to pay my condo fee this month because 
> 
> 1. Both my toenail artist and my hair dresser raised their fees. I have to 
> see them weekly and it adds up. (This one is real!)
> 
> 2. I would have to dip into my $1 million trust fund. (She doesn’t have 
> exactly $1 million but a lot.)
> 
> 3. For the last two years I have been too depressed to look for work. (She 
> got the message that this probably wouldn’t fly.)
> 
> 4. My daughter needs to vacation in Europe for two weeks every year to 
> understand The World and become a global citizen. (A big complainer about 
> money generally.)
> 
> There are definitely real emergencies and crises but unless they are 
> temporary, the community is subsidizing someone else's lifestyle. Some people 
> cut back on eating lunches out but others don’t. One complains but others in 
> the same financial circumstances don’t. 
> 
> Does the squeaky wheel get the grease? Even if the wheel has contributed and 
> continues to contribute to its ability to use the grease wisely?
> 
> For this reason, I would prefer facilitating private loans between community 
> members, except for communities who have taken on subsidized housing from the 
> beginning.
> 
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
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