Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: affordable housing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Jan 2, 2020, at 6:04 AM, R Philip Dowds alt addr via Cohousing-L 
> <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

>  America is now a part of a world economy that militates against affordable 
> land and affordable housing.  Yes, cohousing communities can, should and will 
> take this problem seriously, and try to search out ways to maintain diversity 
> and compensate for a defective global market.  But no community should feel 
> guilty for not solving the problem, or not doing more.  Unaffordable housing 
> is just one of many bad consequences of inequality, and what a microscopic 
> community of 40 households can really do about this is, Not much.  The 
> problem, and the solutions, lie outside the neighborhood.

Wonderful point. Cohousing groups can only do so many things at the same time. 
As the discussion this week and other posts by Katie, etc. who know the market 
have said, construction is expensive. The land acquisition and construction 
process is based on demand. High demand means higher prices. No one wants to 
sell their property for less money than they could get for it in the market. Or 
supply construction materials at cost — no salaries for their workers.

Our economy is not designed to support equal opportunity. And as much as 
cohousers can work to change this, they can’t do everything, and shouldn’t feel 
guilty about it.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Sociocracy: A Deeper Democracy
http://www.sociocracy.info