Cohousing-L Mailing List: Low Cost Cohousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

I’ve done a lot of research and study on this topic. Cohousing often promises 
to be a solution for lower cost living because it is built around sharing 
resources. And reducing the size of individual homes because the CH is a shared 
space. I agree with everything Ty and Philip have said about why that is 
impossible to do within requirements set by various levels of government and 
finance institutions.

Ty has done a wonderful model for a low-cost unit that solves many of these 
problems with creative design and a multi-year development strategy in 
Oklahoma. Perhaps he could say more about this.

After years of talking to developers and reading everything I could find on 
affordable housing, I’m still convinced that creating a community of homes 
costing $100,000 to $200,000 is possible if you can find people who are 
committed to building and living in units that fit that model. 

Cohousing has a middle-class price tag because it competes with middle-class 
lifestyles. Zoning, financing, land costs, building requirements, space 
requirements, etc., are designed to require middle-class living standards. They 
are not designed to allow working class housing. Working-class salaries are 
closer to less than $40,000 a year than to the $75,000+ average of the middle 
class — which is also having a problem finding housing.

> The Pew Research Center's definition of middle-class income — "two-thirds to 
> double the U.S. median household income." According to the data, the 
> middle-class household income averages across the U.S. ranged between $52,000 
> and $98,500 in 2024.

I watched one community that was started with a pledge to keep costs at a level 
that civil servants, police officers, daycare teachers, and maintenance workers 
could afford. The whole concept was lost when middle-class households joined 
and ratcheted up demands while saying they were committed to having low-cost 
units. They totally believed that they were doing good things, but the 
working-class people could see that this was going in the wrong direction. The 
middle-class idea of a home is a bedroom for each person, a bathroom for each 3 
people, and a half-bath for guests. 

To think working class housing you have to start from zero and work up, not 
from $400,000 and work backward. The tiny homes provided by social services 
programs have been criticized because they are totally spare — one room, one 
electrical outlet, one sink if they have water at all. The middle class 
protesters in many places were criticizing these as not qualified to be 
housing, even temporary housing. It took years for the caseworkers to get them 
built and then they were in danger of being torn down.

One of the women who moved into a bare-bones tiny home was astounded. She said, 
"I have a door with a lock on it. Do you know how special that is? “ In 
shelters, people are not allowed to stay all day or have any private space. 
They carry whatever they have with them. Many people prefer cardboard boxes or 
bridges to shelters.

The technology is available. There are programs all over the US and the world 
building basic housing. In the US it tends to be one demonstration house at a 
time, but in some countrie, they build hundreds at one time. Some techniques 
like poured concrete are only practical for large communities because the 
equipment is so expensive to move from one place to another. 

But it will require a group of people committed to the same goal — living on 
$30,000 -$40,000 a year. And spending the time to prove that their design is 
safe and they want to live in it. It’s a technical problem requiring working 
with zoning, permitting, etc., to get exceptions or changes. 

Think about this: the guys (and gals) building all those middle-class houses 
could just as well build their own. 

I found it impossible to find enough interested people in one location. Somehow 
there has to be a communications center like Cohousing-L in which the 
participants are committed to low-cost housing. The best way to require a 
ceiling is to talk in terms of cost per unit.

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