Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing for the Rest of Us [was Durham, NC: 2BR/2BA in Village Hearth

[Kathleen Lowry (kathleenlowrylpcclmft]

Great story Sharon! Thanks! Kathleen

> On Nov 11, 2022, at 1:18 PM, Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l 
> [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> 
>> 
>> On Nov 10, 2022, at 8:18 PM, Virgil Huston <virgil.huston1955 [at] 
>> gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I have been on this listserv for years and never seen a co-housing home I 
>> could even hope to
>> afford in any location, plus HOA fees are as much as I remember mortgage 
>> payments to be. I am fixed income Army retired and I am super happy I own my 
>> single house in what I call a great lower income neighborhood (that is worth 
>> a fourth of this condo price).
> 
> Liz has explained all the reasons newly constructed housing co or no is 
> expensive. And all the misguided regulations and market realities keep it 
> expensive. These are not the result of the nature of cohousing. If anything, 
> cohousing has been gradually able to include some subsidized units, something 
> that other developments do not do on a regular basis although some 
> jurisdictions are requiring it.
> 
> But people have found ways around this outside of new construction. 
> Understanding zoning and finding a zoning board that will grant a variance is 
> one option. It takes focus effort over time but has been done. Many cohousing 
> communities have had to change or get variances for multi-household 
> construction in areas zoned single family.
> 
> The move toward allowing accessory dwelling units is an opportunity to rehab 
> a neighborhood with greater density and a wider range of unit sizes. One of 
> the advantages of rehabbing is the ability to live in the house while 
> rehabbing it. It’s dusty and noisy but it’s a perfect example of building 
> wealth. And using your labor instead of paying for someone else’s. 
> 
>> My neighborhood is old and certainly
>> not upscale, but is safe and very nice, mixed rental and owner and very 
>> diverse (probably way more diverse than any co-housing). It is a great 
>> neighborhood and I love it, but I would also love the community that 
>> co-housing promises.
> 
> One example of building up neighborhoods took place in an aging neighborhood 
> of homes that had been occupied for decades by stable households, a mix of 
> rented and owned. The community organized itself to began rehabbing houses as 
> they were vacant. By doing one house at a time in non-adjacent lots, they 
> improved the quality of the whole neighborhood. They did what real estate 
> investors never do — they increased the livability of one house on a block of 
> deteriorating homes. By doing so, they increased the desirability of the 
> houses around it.
> 
> They didn’t buy blocks of houses and tear them down to build McMansions or 
> shopping malls. The area remained the same neighborhood with houses of the 
> same size, small houses that no one builds any more because there is more 
> profit in bigger houses, but now they looked like houses that someone cared 
> about. Because they did.
> 
> If you have one of those houses and want to have cohousing, you could start 
> behaving as if you have cohousing already. Meeting neighbors. Offering to 
> swap services. Neighborhood outdoor pot lucks. Get permits to block off a 
> street on weekends so everyone can enjoy a park like space. Offer gardening 
> space in your yard to someone who has none or needs more. 
> 
> One woman with 4 children who also happened to have a husband who with a very 
> high salary gave up on living in cohousing because the years were passing and 
> she needed to make a commitment to a school district for her children. She 
> and her husband bought a house in a newer development at the end of the 
> street on one of those circles. One day she made bags of apples with a note 
> and hung them on all her neighbor’s doors. The note was an invitation to a 
> neighborhood potluck at her house the following Sunday. She was deeply 
> depressed because no one responded. No notes. No phone calls. No waving 
> across the driveways. Nothing changed.
> 
> But on Sunday, she put a ribbon on her open door. And everyone came. She had 
> taken the first step to developing a Neighbor Net.
> 
> I remember one condo I lived in in NYC. Most were rented 500SF studios and 
> 600SF 1 bedrooms. It was a 1930s solid building with very wide hallways. Wide 
> enough to have set up tables for potlucks. There were windows along one side 
> with those translucent glass blocks that let light in. If I had known then 
> what I know from living in cohousing, I would have invited everyone on the 
> floor to bring chairs and set up a table for coffee in the morning and 
> potlucks at night. The residents were a mix of NYU students from everywhere 
> including one of those cute Japanese girls who dress like dolls and women who 
> had outlived their husbands and young couples.
> 
> In a covert way we all knew each other and knew our habits of coming and 
> going. We noticed if someone was missing or behaving oddly. But what was 
> missing was the permission to know each other. That’s one of the first things 
> cohousing brings — the expectation that we know each other and interact. At 
> minimum, you smile and say hello. 
> 
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> http://www.takomavillage.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
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