In the spotlight

The media covered cohousing in at least 50 news reports in 2006 compared to perhaps 24 articles the year before. (A more exhaustive list with links to many of the full articles can be found in our Cohousing in the News section.)

Cohousing may not yet be a household word, but you may have noticed it in the news more often this past year. Both multigenerational cohousing and the newer elder/senior cohousing are increasingly grabbing the attention of print and broadcast reporters as well as magazine writers.

One story in 2006 that drew the media’s interest was how pro-active adults are creating intentional communities for “aging in community.” The coverage began in January with a discussion of elder cohousing in the “Savvy Senior” Q & A column, a feature syndicated to daily papers all over the country. On February 27, 2006 The New York Times featured cohousing as a new senior retirement option in a front-page article entitled, “Growing old together, in a new kind of commune.” The story focused on Glacier Circle, a seven-household elder cohousing community in Davis, CA.

Other reports on elder housing

This was followed in March 2006 by a five-minute television report on elder cohousing which aired nationally on PBS-TV’s “Boomers Redefining Life after 50” in a special housing segment. Further coverage of elder cohousing included Urban Land Institute Magazine (May 2006), Kiplinger’s Personal Finance (September 2006) and Communities Magazine (Fall 2006). The Wall Street Journal did a full column on age-targeted cohousing in its “Guide to retirement living and planning” (October 2, 2006), while Time Magazine’s online edition of October 30, 2006 included a piece on elder housing.

Multigenerational cohousing was also very much in the news in 2006. The New York Times, which has been reporting on cohousing every year or two since 1993, included its latest coverage in the premiere of a magazine devoted to real estate (September 10, 2006). The AARP’s Magazine ran a lengthy article on residents of Milagro Cohousing in Tuscon, AZ, (March 2006); Financial Times (November 10, 2006) and US News and World Report (November 20, 2006) also covered cohousing this year. In its 10th anniversary issue (February 2006), Yes! Magazine ran my guest editorial highlighting the last 10 years of cohousing in the United States. In addition, you may have seen photojournalist Joel Sternfeld’s beautiful article titled “Utopian dreams, sustainable realities: Cohousing – a new way to create communities” in Spirituality and Health Magazine (November/December 2006).

Cohousing has also been featured in numerous local newspapers in the last year. Just two examples are the Contra Costa Times’ front-page feature, “A Village in the city,” about Pleasant Hill Cohousing (CA) in July 2006 and the San Francisco Chronicle’s recent lengthy cover article in its Sunday real estate section on December 10. Dozens of other articles ran in local newspapers often describing the development of a new cohousing community nearby. That was true of papers in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. The Raleigh News & Observer also ran an article about the 2006 National Cohousing Conference in Chapel Hill, NC.

Broadcasting reportage

Several broadcast programs also explored cohousing last year. On October 30, NPR station KALW-FM in the San Francisco Bay Area broadcast a 60-minute live call-in program called “City Vision” with Chuck Durrett as the cohousing guest. On November 20, Retirement Living Network aired a 20-minute interview with me on elder cohousing for its program “Living Well” which was available on Comcast and direct TV. On November 30, KFSN-TV, the ABC-TV affiliate in Fresno, did a news report on Fresno Cohousing including footage shot at Central California community Oak Creek Commons.

What’s in store for this year? It’s already begun with Natural Home's article on both multigenerational and elder cohousing as two of four examples of “Communities that Serve People and Planet" (January/February 2007).

Why the increase in coverage you may ask? Our belief is that the media often points the way ahead, and that the general public is waking up now more than ever before to the desirability of living in socially cooperative and environmentally sensitive neighborhoods.

Please let us know if a media outlet contacts you so we can assist the reporter by providing background material and a national perspective. You can reach us at 303-413-8066 or via media [at] Cohousing [dot] org.