East Lake Commons Cohousing

A glance at a detailed map of U.S. cohousing communities would show that most of us are living in areas of relatively high property values: on the coasts, in college towns or on the outskirts of high-tech growth centers. That’s one reason why making cohousing affordable to the widest possible number of people has been of intense interest to prospective community members throughout the history of the cohousing movement.

When our community, East Lake Commons, held its first formal meeting in 1997, one of the first official decisions was that all the units would be designed with two features making each home “visitable” by members with mobility impairments: at least one entrance with zero steps, and at least a half-bathroom on the main floor, with a door wide enough for wheelchair passage.