Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Financial approach for younger prospective members

[Rebecca J. Hogue (rjhogue]

One thing that we did was to create an age diversification policy very early on 
in the project. We went to our human rights tribunal to get an exemption from 
the age housing laws because cohousing has the opposite problem of other forms 
of housing. We decided that we would sell half of our units to households with 
at least one member under the age of 40. We had various challenging times but 
we stuck to our guns. All our advertising was focused on “families” and how 
cohousing is a great place to raise a family. In the end, we had to adjust the 
policy slightly to sell our last home.

We found that the younger families needed to invest at the end of the project, 
not early on as they could not afford the risks that happen early in the 
project.

We are now 100%  sold and a couple of units are up for sale. At this point in 
time our age diversification policy is still in place as our community is still 
being built. We are so happy that our community will be diverse in so many 
different ways – age being one of them.

If it is a possibility, recognizing that younger folks will buy later in the 
project, so you need to save them some homes. If we didn’t have our policy we 
would have sold out sooner but we would only have a couple of young families 
rather than 45% young families.

Cheers,
Becky

From: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l-bounces+rhogue=pobox.com [at] cohousing.org> on 
behalf of Jane R. Mueller <jmueller [at] wellchosenwords.net>
Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 5:03 PM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Subject: [C-L]_ Financial approach for younger prospective members
Dear Cohousing Communitarians~

One of the best pieces of advice MIssion Peak Village received as a
forming community was not to re-invent the wheel. We face a dilemma that
many other communities have likely faced, and we could use your help. If
you came up with a good way to deal with this, would you please share it?

We have submitted plans to the City for approval and are now actively
recruiting new Members. Covering pre-development costs is high priority
but so is creating an age-diverse community. So far, however, our
Members and Explorers come predominantly from mature, more established
households that already own property.

Our current financial structure asks Members to start committing housing
funds 3-4 years in advance of project completion—and be 20% invested
approximately two years before the living space will be available to
occupy, which is when we will need to qualify for our construction loan.
Younger prospective members find this particularly challenging. Here are
some of the reasons:

  * In most cases, young adults are not in a position to buy a home
    until they have been in the work force for awhile; young adults may
    not only be saving for home ownership but also focusing on career
    development. Also, here in the San Francisco Bay Area, they are
    likely paying exorbitant rent.

  * Especially for younger households, their conditions could undergo
    significant change during that 3-4 year period, e.g.
      o Their employment could necessitate relocation
      o Having kids could reduce family income and increase expenses

  * If they should need to change plans, our financial structure ties up
    their housing funds and makes them inaccessible until we have sold
    out our project, approximately 2026.

We would love to devise a financial arrangement that covers the Mission
Peak Village's pre-development costs, qualifies the us for needed loans,
requires real Member commitment to the project, and yet fairly
accommodates the needs of younger Members whose plans may change
unavoidably.

How's THAT for a challenge? Have you found solutions?

Jane Mueller

Mission Peak Village

Fremont, CA


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