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  • The Financing Webinar CD is Available
    May, 2008

    The CD of Katie McCamant’s December webinar on financing cohousing has been produced and is ready to order.

    The presentation is just over an hour and a half long. It is a movie of the full webinar with the complete Powerpoint presentation and the full audio recording of the talk given by Katie on December 3, 2007.

  • First Coho/US Webinar set for December
    November, 2007

    Live events, such as the upcoming Cohousing Conference are an excellent way for cohousing groups to gain valuable information and insights for creating healthy communities. However, for those who can’t wait – or simply can’t afford the trip – the Cohousing Association is pleased to offer another educational opportunity: online “webinars.”

  • Making cohousing affordable: Strategies and successes, part 3 of 3
    by Renee Hart, a founding member of CoHo Ecovillage
    September, 2007

    There was little doubt in anyone’s mind that Mike Volpe, the president of CoHo Ecovillage, was meant to have a home there, in the cohousing community now being built in Corvallis, Oregon. Mike wasn’t nearly as optimistic. Owning a home would mean giving up his Medicaid benefits, and that simply wasn’t an option. Mike has had primary progressive Multiple Sclerosis since he was 23. This particular form of MS is relentless in its pursuit, and it pursued Mike’s health with a vengeance, gradually taking away his ability to walk, to move his hands, and to see clearly.

  • Making cohousing affordable: Strategies and successes, part 2 of 3
    by Brad Gunkel, Architect, McCamant & Durrett Architects
    August, 2007

    The question must have gone through the collective consciousness of more than one cohousing group over the years: “Can we convince affordable housing developers to build affordable cohousing communities?” To the surprise of many cohousers, the answer is actually “yes.”

  • Making cohousing affordable: Strategies and successes, part 1 of 3
    by Betsy Morris, Coho/US Research Director
    July, 2007

    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.

  • Grassroots financing
    by Rick Mockler, CoHousing Partners
    March, 2007

    Cohousing has matured in many respects since it immigrated to the U.S., but none so much as the development structures or the financial savvy of cohousers themselves. Since future residents expect to be involved in the design of the future neighborhood, the instruments for conventionally financed development don’t always work in the same way. Consequently, in the process of learning about real estate development and financing, cohousers are reinventing them.

  • Getting started: The first eight steps
    by Rob Sandelin, Sharingwood Cohousing
    November, 2006

    These are some of the elements to consider working on in the first months you spend together. This assumes you have brought together a core group of at least two or three households. Three or four households is even better.

  • Working with a local project manager
    by John R. McCarthy, project manager, Oak Creek Commons
    September, 2004

    I actually had no experience with cohousing when members of Oak Creek Commons first approached me about the possibility of becoming the project manager for their community. The group already had worked for about a year with a professional whose offices were outside of the area, but had discovered they needed a local, hands-on project manager who could navigate them through the many steps of constructing their new community.

  • Are cohousing homes more affordable than other types of housing?

    Affordability varies. Some cohousing neighborhoods now incorporate approaches to maximize affordability, but most often construction, consultants and financing costs are similar to those in any new development. Cohousing homes tend to be comparably priced with other single-family houses, townhouses or condominiums in the area. In addition to your new home, however, you also will benefit from a custom-designed neighborhood and extensive common facilities, as well as ongoing costs that tend to be less than in a typical U.S. home.

  • Planning: Getting Real, Making it Affordable: Strategies in Cohousing

    Betsy Morris, Don Tucker

    Provides an overview of strategies currently in use in cohousing, and an introduction to the steps that a forming group can take early on to identify the most promising opportunities for them. Topics include defining affordability, building your case, and finding the right partners.

    Betsy Morris lives at Berkeley Cohousing and serves as research director for Coho/US. She is a long-time community and economic development planning and research consultant, with over 20 years experience on the east and west coasts. She has developed trainings for grassroots leaders, and created neighborhood housing plans with an emphasis on affordable housing. She has a Masters and Doctorate in City and Regional Planning.

  • What about rentals?

    Many cohousing neighborhoods include a few rental units owned by members who intend to move in later or who are away for a period of time. In some communities, individual households rent out their attached “in-law” apartments or finished basement apartments. Some people want to rent in cohousing to try it out, because they cannot yet afford to buy a unit, or because they want to live in a particular community but no units are currently available for sale. Most residents agree that rental units are a positive addition to a community.

  • Planning: Integrating Affordable Units Into Cohousing Communities

    Bob Engler

    How can non-professionals succeed in taking on the role of “developer”? How can communities succeed in making affordable units a significant part of the their development projects? How and when should cohousing groups seek outside help and advice? This session covers these questions and more in a presentation of “The Housing Delivery Process.” A thorough familiarity with this process will help groups get from vision to permitting approvals, to financing, to construction. The focus will be on a specific set of critical decisions, and the key considerations that will help your group navigate your way to making the best choices.

  • How does cohousing provide for residents of different economic means?

    Some states, counties or municipalities require developers of multi-family housing to have a certain percentage of the new units meet a standard for “affordability.” People in cohousing usually welcome this, and often wish they could make even more than the required percentage affordable. Unfortunately, unless the developer can get public or private subsidies or grants, a community can build only a limited number of affordable units without significantly driving up everyone else’s costs.

  • Planning: Working With Non-Profit Developers to Create Affordable Rental Cohousing

    Brad Gunkel, Eris Weaver

    While many groups are looking for ways to create greater affordability in cohousing, many non-profit developers are looking for ways to create tightly knit communities in their affordable developments. Is this a marriage made in heaven? Or do institutionalized restrictions on non-profit developers make this partnership too encumbered to be worth pursuing? The reality tends to be somewhere in the middle and may be worth considering. Learn about the process and challenges of working with non-profit developers to create affordable rental cohousing through an interactive discussion with the architect and group process consultant for one such community.

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