Re: Affordable Cohousing
From: Hafidha Sofia (hafidhaaogmail.com)
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2021 14:05:21 -0700 (PDT)
Interesting to read about how things are handled in different places.

Where I live, we have something written in legal documents that allows 
associate members first access to homes for sale, and the community chimes in 
on selection of new owners.

Units rarely come up for sale, but the last one that did was open to membership 
first (another good reason to have non resident members) and the two candidates 
wrote letters of intent to the community, voicing why they wanted to buy here. 
Then the community did a form
of voting to choose among the candidates.

There was no bidding war or anything like that. 

Our homes are priced far lower than what is on the regular housing market in 
this area. People buy here not as financial investment so much as to have a 
place to live for the long term.

Hafidha
Songaia Cohousing
Washington State, USA

> On Apr 19, 2021, at 1:57 PM, Chris Hansen <itschrishansen [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:
> 
> Would love to see your 'goodness of fit' document!
> With thanks...
> 
>> On Mon, 19 Apr 2021 at 16:54, Diana Stanley <lusty [at] lusty.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Diana,
>> 
>> The part of what Zev wrote that we are interested in is this:
>> 
>>>> goodness of fit questionnaire, attend an open house, a meal and a
>> business
>>>> meeting so we can meet them and they can see what we are all about.
>> 
>> As I stated before, we have no interest in denying anyone, and we never
>> have denied anyone. Our "goodness of fit questionnaire" is more like a
>> "no-surprises checklist", and all the rest are just so the person can meet
>> others in the community and find out what co-housing is all about. And we
>> will not be writing anything into our governing documents without first
>> getting approval from a real estate attorney who is knowledgeable about
>> what we can and cannot ask prospective buyers to do.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Diana
>> Phoenix Commons, Oakland, CA
>> 
>>> On Apr 19, 2021, at 1:43 PM, Diana Carroll <dianaecarroll [at] gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Diana: What Zev describes is *extremely unusual *and would generally be
>>> illegal. There must be some legal loophole or workaround here related to
>>> the city's affordability program that allows them to screen potential
>>> buyers that way. Even if there is some loophole that allows this not be
>> be
>>> a violation of the equal housing laws, I would not suggest doing this --
>>> for me, on principle, this is a bad thing. Once you start evaluating
>> people
>>> for "fit", you are introducing the sort of subjective judgements that
>> lead
>>> to racism, ableism, etc.  As much as in your heart you may not want to do
>>> this, or be that person, unconscious bias is a thing. I'm honestly
>> shocked
>>> to hear cohousing doing this or endorsing it. :(
>>> 
>>> diana Carroll
>>> Mosaic Commons, central MA
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Mon, Apr 19, 2021 at 4:09 PM Diana Stanley <lusty [at] lusty.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Zev,
>>>> 
>>>> Is this process written into your governing documents? Was it vetted by
>> a
>>>> real estate attorney? Would you be willing to share the parts of your
>>>> governing documents that outline this process? Does it only apply
>> because
>>>> the applicants are buying below-market-rate properties?
>>>> 
>>>> My community is currently struggling with what sort of processes we can
>>>> write into our governing documents to achieve exactly the process you
>>>> describe for prospective new members of the community. We don't actually
>>>> deny anyone, however we want to require all of them to go through all
>> the
>>>> steps you describe, so they and we are certain they know what they're
>>>> buying into.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Diana
>>>> Phoenix Commons, Oakland, CA
>>>> 
>>>>> On Apr 19, 2021, at 11:11 AM, Zev Paiss <zevpaiss [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Dear Ann,
>>>>> 
>>>>> Buyers pre-qualify with the City affordable housing program and get
>>>> pre-approved by a lender as part of that process.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Before COVID our community required that all applicants complete a
>>>> goodness of fit questionnaire, attend an open house, a meal and a
>> business
>>>> meeting so we can meet them and they can see what we are all about. A
>> small
>>>> committee of 4-6 people whittle down the pool of qualified applicants
>> to a
>>>> small handful and then pass them along to the seller to make the final
>>>> decision.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Zev Paiss
>>>>> Nomad Community Room Coordinator
>>>>> 1410 Quince Avenue, Boulder CO 80304
>>>>> 720-925-5161
>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
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>> 
> 
> -- 
> Chris Hansen
> 32 East Village Drive
> Burlington
> Vermont 05401
> USA
> 
> Ph 603 3988730
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