Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing can do better

[Trish Becker-Hafnor (trish]

The Cohousing Association of the U.S. seeks people to launch the Coalition for 
Racial Diversity in Cohousing. For a variety of reasons cohousing is not 
accessible to many people of color and others pushed to the margins. This needs 
to change.



I’ve lived in cohousing for twelve years, and now serve as the CohoUS Board 
President. There are 170 existing and 150 forming cohousing communities. The 
vast majority of cohousers say that they value diversity and inclusion, and yet 
many of our communities are racially homogenous.



The typical cohouser is a White, progressive thinking, upper class, high income 
wage earning Baby Boomer with a college education. Seventy percent of us 
identify as women. What about everyone else? Cohousing is largely inaccessible 
to the majority of people who are interested in community living.



We are looking for input from people in aligned public and private sectors, 
from housing, environmental justice, human services to community organizing.



The success of our work depends upon a diverse set of identities to develop a 
great story. We hope you’ll join us. A detailed description of the coalition 
can be found 
here<https://www.cohousing.org/coalition-for-racially-diverse-cohousing/>, and 
applications<https://forms.gle/UgdFrbeuZAoF15gm8> are open until February 24.



In community,



Alan O'Hashi

President

Cohousing Association of the US