Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Including interested people in the process when they aren't ready to commit financially

[Dennis Clark (dennisclark43]

Debbie,
Cohousing is a combination of community and housing. People want to know
not only where they'll live but with whom. I heard it once said cohousing
is like marrying 30 or 50 other people. Most people what to know who
they'll be spending their future with. So my advice is invite everyone
interested in your project and try to build a social community during
development. Our community took 8 years development before we moved in--but
we already had a strong connection as a group when we did. As a bonus,
community is harder to create after move in and you'll have less issues
afterward.
Dennis
CoHo cohousing Corvallis, OR

On Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 5:24 AM, Dick Margulis <dick [at] dmargulis.com> wrote:

> On 9/30/2017 11:32 AM, Debbie Fox via Cohousing-L wrote:
>
>
>> My question is:  How have other developing cohousing groups included
>> interested parties that are not ready to put in money?  Do you include them
>> in the monthly meetings?  Several people have asked to come to the
>> meetings, but they aren't ready to commit financially.
>>
>>
> We decided early on that we wanted an economically diverse community. So
> we separated membership in the community (achieved by attending meetings
> and doing work) from financial commitment to the community. We asked those
> who could put money in to do so, and that provided enough seed money that
> we were then able to secure predevelopment loans to pay the bills until we
> got to the construction financing. Yes, we know who put in how much, and
> that money will go toward those individuals' home purchases. But we never
> required that everyone pay equally into the project. Meanwhile, the
> community grew with people who would not have been able to pay more than
> our nominal annual organization dues.
>
> Dick Margulis
> Rocky Corner, Connecticut's first cohousing community
>
>
>
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