Cohousing-L Mailing List: Unoccupied Units & the Effect on Workshare

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Jan 15, 2023, at 11:59 AM, Marilyn Seiler <marilynseiler72 [at] gmail.com> 
> wrote:

> I would appreciate feedback and discussion on the increasing
> number of members absent from the community for extended periods of time.

We have been pretty clear with each other that we don’t expect people to move 
in planning to live part-time somewhere else. We have been lucky since we don’t 
have it written down anywhere—we just talk about it. During the Pandemic, 2-3 
households at a time were living elsewhere, usually with family out of the 
city. Some have since moved. 

We have one unit that has been rented for the maximum amount of time allowed 
(3-4 years) and is still empty. This has led to reconsidering our rental policy 
and the effect of non-resident sort-of-present owners — living elsewhere in 
town but not ready to sell.

Cohousing communities in the Sunbelt and the Snowbelt have worried about this. 
In a small community it makes a big difference to have a hole next door. The 
unit next to me will be empty for 6 months and has been empty at times for a 
year or more before. I feel the lack of neighbors especially because I have an 
end unit. 

> I would like to include members who are physically and mentally incapacitated
> and unable to participate. They have adequate paid support but the paid
> support does not participate in any community tasks or events except to
> occasionally assist in getting the member to the event and remaining to
> assist as necessary.

This seems not to be as worrisome if the person has been living in the 
community for years and contributed in many ways and becomes unable to 
contribute. But what happens when a person wants to move in who can’t or 
doesn’t plan to contribute from day one? Our only protection is making the 
expectations clear. But I suppose we could also make an agreement with such a 
person to pay a workshare fee. 

> It also adds work to the participating members in
> many very small additional tasks we perform to assure the safety and
> well-being of the member.

This is one of the issues with rented units. One household has rented their 
unit for the 3 months they have summered elsewhere and another has exchanged 
homes with a household in the Servas program. The renters have most often 
(always?) been delightful people who did contribute but it is still extra work 
for others to orient people and caution them about stuff.

> I know that I would like to remain in my home
> until I die, but is it fair to the Community to have a non-participating
> member, maybe as long as 2-3 years? How do we as a Community address this
> ever-increasing issue?

In order to have people stay in their homes until death do us part, we need a 
plan. A friend has her favorite cartoon posted over her desk: Two prisoners are 
shackled hand and foot to the stone wall in a dungeon. And one says, “What we 
need is a plan.” It feels like that some days.

I think cohousing might have a lot to learn from senior living communities and 
continuing care facilities. They have experience with the balance of age groups 
and identified risks in terms of debilitating conditions. They carefully 
balance the ages and conditions of new residents so it is manageable. They know 
how many residents are likely to need “memory care”, for example. How many 
people it takes to staff a unit of single-room residences with shared common 
areas.

This long trail of a message is to tie all these issues together into the 
workshare thread. A resident with an MBA who had also been president of a coop 
board and worked in a law firm, once said that our workforce was 1/3 the number 
of our residents. Without actually tracking this on paper, I think they were 
right. 

The estimate was that at any given time 1/3 would be ill or otherwise 
overwhelmed with the demands of their personal lives and another 1/3 would be 
people who were not highly competent or leaderly or entertaining. They 
contribute at some level but can’t be depended on to do things as well as 
others might want them done. I think that may be underestimating the abilities 
of that 1/3, but it isn’t too far off. This includes people who need a lot of 
coaxing, reminding, and supervision. Some are more hesitant than incapable.

The people in each 1/3 change from one year to the next, but at any given time 
of 60 adult residents, it might be standard that 20 will be the people who are 
taking leadership in planning and doing activities. Another 20 will participate 
in this or that and come to workdays sometimes. And 20 will be in various 
conditions of unavailable. Sounds bleak but more realistic than expecting 
everyone to do 6 hours a month.

We tend to look at one list of jobs and another list of members and try to 
match them up. What we probably need to do more is look at the history of the 
community and the size of the most available workforce. How many people at any 
given time are readily available? How many people will be stressed out looking 
for jobs? Finding daycare? Recovering from ____? Taking time out because they 
are still angry about some decisions made last year. 

When I come up against questions like this I wish I had kept a log. Although I 
probably wouldn’t have thought to keep track of these kinds of things.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org