Creating Sustainable Neighborhoods; Learning from the Cohousing Experience

Registration is now available for the 2012 National Cohousing Conference
Marriott Oakland CA City Center: Wednesday June 13 - Sunday June 17

Register now to get the early bird discount.

For more information visit the conference website:  http://conference.cohousing.org/

Every year around this time we have a community retreat. It is a time for all of us to reconnect. To get to know each other on a deeper level. Sometimes the retreat is facilitated with outside help and sometimes from members of the community.

The first night, Friday night, we have a potluck, a ceremony of some kind,and then we watch the Heartwood movie. The movie is made by gathering all the photos and movies that people have taken of life at Heartwood or individual accomplishments for the year and these are put to music by two of our teenage girls. They have been doing this now for several years. It is a fun way for them to contribute and the product is always amazing and something we can look back on in 10 years and see how we have changed and grown.

Lately I have been thinking about what CoHousing is like from a child's perspective. And as Oliver Wendell Homes said, "Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children." For them it must be heaven. No meetings, no money worries, conflicts come and go at the drop of a hat. So I asked some of the kids in our neighborhood what they like and don't like about living in CoHousing. What was the most telling, was that many of them couldn't come up with anything they didn't like!

Here are some of the answers I got:

What do you like best about CoHousing?

"I can ride my bike all over the place."
"Being able to walk to your friend's house."
"Playing with my friends."
"There are a lot of things, there is a lot of room that we can run and play out of the cluster"

Has your community found a great solution to a common cohousing challenge? Do you have expertise in a particular area of cohousing development or community living? Is there a burning question or issue that you'd like to discuss in a forum with other cohousers? Submit your idea to the 2012 National Cohousing Conference program committee!

The 2012 National Cohousing Conference will be held June 13-17th in Oakland, CA. The theme is: Creating Sustainable Neighborhoods: learning from the cohousing experience. We'll be giving a little extra attention to the social and economic aspects of the sustai! nability triad. Attendees will include cohousing residents, members of fledglingcommunities, professionals, and folks completely new to the idea. Presentations, workshops, and roundtable discussions will range in length from one hour to two days.

Some areas we are particularly seeking submittals and suggestions:

In our community it's not where you live that matters, but that each member stays connected and gets their needs met. This idea is embodied in what we affectionately call the "Heartwood Shuffle". The Heartwood Shuffle is a dance of compassion and meeting needs. Sometimes it's two steps forward and one step back. We never know when the dance will begin or when it will end. Last year the dance started with my neighbors whose kids had grown and moved out. They wanted to spend a year away on retreat at their beautiful cabin in the Conejos. That opened up their house for rent. Another family was crammed into a little studio apartment with the two kids and another on the way. They worked it out to move into the spacious home next to me and their third child was born not long after.

Swing your partner to the left. This opened up the studio and someone who was just renting a room, got their own place.

In the past few months, I have been visiting Cohousing communities in Boulder, the East Bay, Portland and the Puget Sound region. Though our neighborhoods have lower than average foreclosure rates, and homes tend to hold their value in a declining market, cohousing communities still feel the impacts of a struggling economy and country.

Researchers and writers gathered at the cohousing conference in June 2011 to form the Cohousing Researchers Network (CRN). Its purpose is to increase and improve knowledge about cohousing.

WHAT COHOUSING COMMUNITIES CAN DO FOR THE CRN

1. When researchers and writers request tours or interviews, direct them to CRN
(Diane Margolis: Diane [at] margolis [dot] com)

WHAT THE CRN CAN DO FOR COHOUSING COMMUNITIES

1. Currently some cohousing communities are overwhelmed by the number of student and professional researchers and writers who ask for tours and interviews and response to surveys. CRN can act as a clearing house reducing the number of requests any community receives while facilitating the work of researchers and writers.

2. Currently cohousers need to explain cohousing to potential buyers, neighbors, and local bankers and officials. Such explanations will become less necessary as CRN expands knowledge about cohousing.

WHAT CRN CAN DO FOR RESEARCHERS AND WRITERS

I am pleased to announce the launch of a new non-profit organization, Partnerships for Affordable Cohousing, Inc. (PFAC). Its mission is to develop and provide permanently affordable cohousing homes throughout the United States. PFAC partners with local and national groups to support affordable cohousing for low- and moderate-income families and individuals. Please see http://www.affordablecohousing.org for more information.

Please contact myself (jgarciano [at] edwardswildman [dot] com) or Rick Keller, President of PFAC, (richart [dot] keller [at] gmail [dot] com) if you are interested in partnering with PFAC in its mission. Specifically we are looking for people to serve on our board of directors or board of advisors. We are also planning to form a group of private investors to create an investment fund to financially support affordable cohousing. If you have any interest in exploring either of these areas please contact us.

Legal Issues.  Senior Cohousing presents an interesting legal issue because such communities seek to limit the population to adults, i.e., to exclude children (under the age of 18) from permanent residency.  On the face of it, such restrictions would appear to violate Federal law which prohibits discrimination on the basis of "familial status" (the presence or anticipated presence of children under 18 in a household).

Familial Status Issue -- Age 55+.  Federal law on the subject starts with the Civil Rights Act of 1968.  Title VIII of that Act is known as the Fair Housing Act.  The Act originally prohibited discrimination in selling or renting real estate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (gender) or national origin.  The Act was amended in 1988 to further prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and familial status (the presence or anticipated presence -- i.e., due to pregnancy -- of children under 18).  

Hi, I want to introduce myself. My name is Sandy and I live in Heartwood Cohousing. www.heartwoodcohousing.com and www.heartwoodfarmscoop.com. Our community is about 11 years old and is located in Southwest Colorado. I have volunteered to write a monthly blog where I will try to give you an up close and personal look at life in CoHousing.

This is a beautiful time of year here in Southwest Colorado. The fall colors have gone on and on this year. The smell of snow is in the air and things are starting to change over to a whole new season. We have put the farm to bed and sent our wonderful farm interns on their way to new adventures. Community meals have more soups than salads now, and life seems a little less hectic.