Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Is cohousing a consumer product?

[Kathleen Lowry (kathleenlowrylpcclmft]

At the annual conference, there were some architects, developers who are
still available, I believe.
https://www.cohousing.org/cohoevents/2022-madison-speakers/


Kathleen Lowry
MA, LPCC, LMFT
952-270-1654
kathl <kathleenlowryLPCCLMFT [at] gmail.com>eenlowryLPCCLMFT [at] gmail.com
<kathleenlowryLPCCLMFT [at] gmail.com>



On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 12:19 PM Steve Welzer <stevenwelzer [at] gmail.com>
wrote:

> > been following you and various NJ/NY/PA groups since the mid-2000s.
>
> Yes, right.
>
> The last time I saw Katie was when our group, for inspiration, visited the
> Rocky Corner Cohousing project in New Haven, CT.
>
> Some inspiration. A year later Rocky Corner went bust and quite a few
> people lost a significant amount of money.
>
> Ditto with the Three Groves Ecovillage project.
>
> And others.
>
> In 2014 I met with Patrick Han, who was, at the time, the CohoUS
> representative in our area (he was based in New York City). I said to him,
> “It’s not looking as if just-us will be able to get together the resources
> to buy a property, obtain zoning variances, hire professionals, etc. to
> make a cohousing project come to fruition. But dozens surely would move in
> if a developer would take the lead.” He said: “That’s not cohousing.” I
> said, “I’m afraid it just won’t happen otherwise. We have no deep pockets
> or real estate construction expertise.” He practically screamed at me:
> “That not cohousing!”
>
> It used to be the conventional wisdom that nine of ten initiatives never
> come to fruition. I don’t know if there’s been progress toward better
> prospects, but in my experience, in my area, ten out of ten don’t come to
> fruition ... even after genuine effort, clear vision, commitment of time,
> and contribution of money.
>
> Loss of money.
>
> In 2015 we took encouragement from Katie McCamant’s launching of the 500
> Communities initiative to train and deploy hundreds of cohousing
> facilitators nationwide. Exactly what’s needed! We were naive enough to
> think that, surely, within three or four years there would be one or
> several make-it-happen professionals in our area.
>
> Nope.
>
> After an article about cohousing runs in the *New York Times* or there’s a
> segment about it on NPR we get dozens of calls. The resonance of the idea
> is undeniable. The recognition that cohousing and ecovillage living
> prefigure the pathway toward the necessary greening of our society is
> obvious to more and more people. But the paradigm of amateurs coming
> together to try to start bonding, then losing money and getting their
> hearts broken ... needs to be addressed.
>
> The movement needs green-conscious, communitarian-minded,
> social-change-oriented developers. Let them make their profits. Let us
> realize our vision of networks of eco-communities in every state of the
> country.
>
> Steve Welzer
> Altair EcoVillage project participant
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