Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: making cohousing affordable (Re: Cohousing-L Digest, Vol 252, Issue 20)

[R Philip Dowds (rphilipdowds]

Pushing affordability onto the back burner for just a moment …

Emerging communal groups trying to invent and implement their own cohousing 
(design and construction) project face two huge, huge hurdles:

(1) They must learn to be real estate developers.  Which confronts them with 
endless arcana about special permits, design choices, legal formats for 
contracts and deeds, critical path management, construction pricing, financing 
over time, and so on.  This throws them into a constant interaction with public 
officials, attorneys, architects and engineers, contractors and subcontractors, 
and other specialists.  Even when a group decides to hire a *real* real estate 
professional to take the lead, it must learn — fast! — how to work with this 
professional:  When to accept unpalatable advice, when to redirect him/her 
toward a more communal outcome, how to respond promptly to deadlines and 
requests, etc.  Real estate development is high risk and hard work, for which 
experience counts a lot.

(2) They must learn to be communitarians.  Good intentions, a loving heart, and 
a pleasant personality are a good start, but by themselves, not enough.  
Forming groups must learn, on the fly, consensus as a substitute for voting; 
how to identify personal skillsets, and put them to productive use; what to do 
about disputes; how to tell the difference between substantive disagreement and 
interpersonal conflict; how to make decisions efficiently, and stick to them; 
what can or should be delegated to sub circles, and what must be addressed in 
Full Circle.  And so on.  For many or most of us, this does not come naturally, 
and for many of us, a lot of it is outside our experience of competitive rather 
than collaborative culture.

In sum, most formational cohousing must learn how to do a highly technical and 
intricate real estate project as a collaboration, rather than in the 
command-and-control hierarchy common to the design and construction industry.  
If they don’t figure it out fast, they go broke.  I am told that nine out of 
ten community formation project efforts fail to launch.

Now, reaching to the back burner … (3) What about affordability?  As we all 
note and agree, the conventional US housing market is clearly unaffordable for 
far too many households.  This is due to structural problems in the housing 
market, not the least of which is increasing inequality of wealth and income.  
So:  In addition to learning (1) real estate permitting, finance, design and 
construction, and (2) a new collaboration methodology for building solidarity 
and sustaining agreement, we also now want these groups to (3) take on the 
inequities of our national economy, and figure out how to create that which is 
impossible in the “free” market: make “inexpensive” housing?

It’s a minor miracle that any cohousing ever happens — and I have tremendous 
admiration for any group of amateurs that can pull off (1) and (2).  I’m not 
arguing for abandoning (3) the affordability quest.  But I will say:  Planet 
Coho should not beat itself up for failure to produce cheap housing.  The deck 
is stacked against us, and we’re shoveling against the tide.  

———————————
Thanks,
Philip Dowds (who earned his living in command-and-control design and 
construction)
Cornerstone Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

> On Jan 27, 2025, at 6:12 PM, Michael J. Moore <moore.michaelj3 [at] 
> gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> At Elderberry Cohousing in Rougemont NC ( north of Durham ) we have taken a
> multi-faceted approach to this issue . We are a senior community of 18
> homes , located in a rural  county about 25-30 minutes from the nearest
> hospital and major grocery stores . The Triangle area of Raleigh /Durham /
> Chapel Hill has seen tremendous growth , but we have so far avoided most of
> that .  Still , the cost of homes are going up  . We try to keep those
> costs manageable in a number of ways . Property taxes are lower here , and
> our homes range from 325 square feet to 1200 square feet .  In addition ,
> sales of homes are handled internally , eliminating the need for realtors
> and associated fees .  Home prices are capped ; no homes are sold higher
> than the appraised value .
> 
> Other steps we have taken include the addition of solar panels to help
> reduce utility bills .  Our green certified homes are all electric , and to
> save on meter costs , all 18 homes plus the Common House are grouped on 4
> meters .  This saves quite a bit on meter costs . Electric bills are based
> on square footage of our homes .  I just happen to be the tiny house guy ,
> with the smallest home at 325 square feet , and my electric bills last year
> averaged $24 a month , ( this does not include phone / internet ) .  Our
> monthly assessments  are the lowest of 12 communities in the region because
> , as active seniors , we do a lot of the work maintaining our community
> ourselves .
> 
> Does all this solve the affordability issue ?  No , and we are well
> aware of that .  We are always exploring ways to improve , but this is a
> tough issue .
> 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 2:12 PM Kate C via Cohousing-L <
> cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
>> Sharon,
>> I’m sorry that it sounds like maybe TV is a challenge for youngs and olds
>> to participate in your community, and of course the bedroom loft design of
>> most tiny homes may be a critical impediment for some elders.
>> 
>> Here in Austin, there is a tiny home community that helps provide stable
>> shelter for people without homes. The homes are quite spare, and all
>> facilities are in a shared common house. That doesn’t seem practical for a
>> coho community, but personally, I don’t see why each unit would require its
>> own laundry facilities, for example. (My apartment never had one.) And as
>> many of you have shared stock pots, sanders, and books to keep personal
>> possessions to a minimum. I wonder if anyone has an option for rentable
>> personal storage rooms as well.
>> 
>> Sharon, I am a “collector” of the first order, but for me, I wonder if the
>> advantages of living in community might not be incentive enough for
>> disvestiture, especially if my beloved things (eg books) were not disposed
>> of, but being loved by others as well.
>> 
>> Looking forward to more of this conversation and how communities think
>> about affordability, tiny houses, and use of personal and communal space.
>> Does this bear on buy-in expenses at all?
>> 
>> I am ever so slowly trying to figure out whether cohousing would work for
>> me, and these conversations are valuable and interesting. Thanks.
>> 
>> 🏳️‍🌈 Kate C
>> (she/her/hers)
>> ** Vote. For a safer tomorrow **
>> 
>> Private correspondence
>> Do not copy or forward without permission
>> 
>>> On Jan 26, 2025, at 8:16 PM, cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org wrote:
>>> 
>>> Re: [C-L]_ making cohousing affordable
>> 
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