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

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Feb 12, 2016, at 1:02 PM, Elizabeth Magill <pastorlizm [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> So its a small benefit...but enough to make it so that people's frustrations 
> over the increases in the absolutely necessary items can be balanced with the 
> decision for some households to spend less on the "optional" items without 
> requiring that we go without any option items.

Many people here also define things as “absolutely necessary” and “extra.” In 
cohousing, I don’t know how you do this. I believe it’s all the same ball of 
wax or it isn’t cohousing.

For example, the commonhouse isn’t “necessary.” All the activities contribute 
to the value of individual units. 

The wear and tear on the CH is as much due to “extras” as to “necessary” to 
maintain values. Why aren’t those cohousing costs — 50% of repairs and 
maintenance of the CH, for example are “extras.”

It seems that when we start talking this way, people discount the importance of 
budgeting money to provide part of an otherwise potluck meal. Or songbooks for 
group sings. Or furniture for the kids room since not everyone has kids. 

For years we only had Thrift Shop or hand-me-down furniture in the guestrooms. 
The photos I took during a stay at Cornerstone cohousing finally tipped the 
balance to purchasing new things that were the right scale for the relatively 
small guest rooms. Oddly, some of the accepted hand-me-downs were being donated 
because they were too large for people’s units. The rooms now look much more 
spacious. The new furniture is white and light Birch which helps enormously. No 
dark wood.

The feeling of spaciousness expands to not making divisions between what is 
necessary and what is extra. It’s all based on what we want the community to be 
or do. We have the conversation over again whenever there is an unexpected 
expense but the result is always the same. It’s all cohousing.

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