Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: [External] 30% of Income Cohousing [was Unit price and budget questions

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Nov 21, 2020, at 11:58 AM, Janet Boys <jboys [at] temple.edu> wrote:

> I particularly appreciate your statement about people with higher
> incomes... Recently I read in a letter to the Denver Post about the
> protests for Black Lives Matter and at sporting venues - "Equality is seen
> as oppression by the privileged". So having "lower quality" fixtures for
> all so that all can afford it, is seen as oppression -

This is probably the major reason that it is hard to put a wide range of income 
levels together. One has climbed to a higher rung and the other is still trying 
to get on the ladder. And seeing comfortable living as a Zero sum game. There 
is only XXXXXX in the game. If I want XXXXX, then you can only have X. Or if I 
give XXX to the other half, then I have only XXX.

The research I think we need when saying we want income diversity is whether 
households of two professionals want to build a community that includes 
waitresses and low-income government workers, do they want share facilities and 
lifestyle or change that of the low-income residents.

Having middle class things—McMansions even if green—also require or come along 
with a certain lifestyle. A friend's daughter was in an exclusive Manhattan 
prep school and was frequently invited on European tours, ski vacations, etc. 
While all expenses were covered by the host, the mother still had to dress the 
child, fill the suitcase so she could even get on the plane. A ski vacation is 
expensive when you don’t already have skis, boots, etc.. and are unlikely to 
ever use them again. But the pressure of saying no repeatedly makes one 
question the benefits of being in the middle of a lifestyle you can’t afford.

Not everyone wants that life style. They don’t want the pressure. And frankly, 
they don’t want to hear about it. Their life is better sitting around the 
trailer drinking beer and telling stories. It is lifestyle as well as just 
plain money. 

(Read recent literature on the negative effects and falsity of meritocracy.)

One of the goals, I think, is to be specific from the outset about what the 
economic goals of the group are. And go for that, not by designing living 
spaces that compete in the middle class market. What does it take to build a 
$100,000 living unit? It’s like starting with 30% of income. You have a number 
to work with.

> "why can't I have
> what I want (when I can pay for it)?" I don't know if you can draw a hard
> line and say no customization during the original build, but I suggest you
> try if you really want to have housing at lower per SF costs.

Communities have had to start drawing hard lines in order to both reduce costs 
and to avoid construction delays. Complexity takes more time and/or results in 
more mistakes.

Customizations cost everyone money in terms of time and effort. I wasn’t on 
site when Takoma Village was built so I’m relating stories second hand. There 
was a decision to allow people to choose an IKEA kitchen instead of the 
contractor grade kitchen. That meant before hand that someone had to organize 
the process, educate purchasers about how to do this, spend time in every 
meeting discussing related issues, trips to IKEA to choose stuff, consultations 
with the contractor about what was necessary (measurements but also screws, 
brackets, gas hoses), organizing delivery from IKEA, figuring out where to put 
the stuff when the space wasn’t ready for installation, and then finding 
competent installers. Not everyone understands how to install IKEA cabinets. 

I decided not to get an IKEA kitchen because I was living in Florida and there 
was no IKEA there. I didn’t want to manage things from afar. But I was really 
glad I didn’t. Watching that process was enough. 

Organizing construction is something you learn a lot about in cohousing.

> Maybe you
> could give some paint color choices? Also having open shelves (no cupboard
> doors) would allow owners to add the doors later at their own expense and
> sense of decor. Leaving them off is cheaper, and makes it easier for those
> who have disabilities,

Ironically, many things that seem to be ways to save money, are not. 
Standardization is less expensive because it optimizes and simplifies the 
manufacturing process and lowers the costs of maintaining large mixed 
inventories at the retail level. Cabinets with doors _off_ are custom items. 
Cabinets are sold as one unit. Divide them and that’s a special order.

Different sized units alone will mean 100 of Cabinet A, 50 of C, 20 of E, and 
200 of Y. Then people start customizing and the order becomes 76 of A, 43 of C, 
15 of E, 20, of F, 10 of M, etc. Maybe that all arrives in good order — or 
maybe it takes 3 delivery attempts to get it sorted out. 

> This will probably increase cost, but I sure wish we had a few outlets in
> the floor of the common areas so that electrical things do not always have
> to be by walls to eliminate the tripping over cords.

The balancing act is figuring out good ideas are worth the $$$ spent or saved. 
Time is money. I learned this when I realized what the interest rates were on a 
$5 million construction loan—every day it piles up. Added to how much each 
household is paying to both live where they are living and paying or saving to 
pay for the cohousing unit that has an unknown delivery date and sometimes 
still an unknown price.

I really don’t want to be discouraging. I want this to happen. But a house or 
unit for $100,000 has to begin from different assumptions. From the inception, 
it has to speak a different language.

Current cohousing communities had to learn to be upfront about how much 
cohousing costs — that the units are market rate. That it isn’t a subsidized 
housing project, though a few have been able to incorporate some subsidized 
units. I’m sure every group has had people drop out because they could see 
costs rising above what they could or wanted to pay.

"Everyone welcome" doesn’t mean everyone welcome. I would like to see that 
change because I think the way of living is not only good but is the way 
households have always lived. Like meritocracy, the luxury and privacy of the 
middle class lifestyle and the nuclear family is revealing that some stuff is 
missing. 

Ironic story — one of the first groups I wanted to join was started by a former 
priest and a nun who had left their orders, married, and had 2 children under 
the age of 3. What they discovered is that the nuclear family is crazy idea. 
They wanted community living back. At a level they could afford. The skills 
they in the orders were of little value in real life.

Sharon
——— 
Sharon Villines
http://affordablecohousing.com
sustainablecohousing [at] groups.io
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