Moving to an Established Community Rather than Creating A New
In response to an inquiry on the coho-l email discussion group, about recommendations on connecting with people who might be interested in starting a community, Tom Lofft with Liberty Village Cohousing in Maryland responded: Hi all wannabes and start-up cohousers: I recommend that any small group in particular, especially those who are thinking of breaking… Read More
Let the Planning Begin – Announcing National Cohousing Open House Day!
Coho/US is initiating a National Open House Day! Whatever these words may bring up for you, one thing is for sure – just as cohousing itself is a collaborative process and group effort, a living example that the whole indeed is greater than the sum of its part, it will be with this event as… Read More
Save the Date! Aging in Community Cohousing Conference May 20 – 21, 2016 Salt Lake City, Utah Co-Produced by Coho/US and SageHill Cohousing This conference is designed to fuel a nationwide development of senior friendly cohousing communities. To help remove development barriers, presenters will include policy makers, experts in aging and care services, lenders, and… Read More
The Best Place to Survive an Ice Storm
In Christmas of 2012, a year after my family moved to Belfast Cohousing & Ecovillage, our town was the epicenter of one of the most severe ice storms the Maine coast has seen in recent memory. Temperatures dropped to negative 5 Fahrenheit at night and electricity was out for days as ice encrusted roads and… Read More
The Board of Partnerships for Affordable Cohousing (PFAC) is excited to announce that Wendy Wiesner has agreed to serve as our first Executive Director! Wendy is widely known for her commitment to and promotion of cohousing. As a PFAC Board member, she has spent much of her time connecting with and assisting forming and expanding… Read More
Why is there a Lack of Affordable Cohousing? Reflections on Cost-Effective Housing
I am often asked about “affordable housing”. People want “affordable cohousing”. I want to share with you what this is all about and why I believe this country lacks “affordable cohousing”. I also want to tell you about a good book by Andrew Heben “Tent City Urbanism (From self-organized Camps to Tiny House Villages)” which… Read More
Gathering Critical Mass for North Bay Cohousing
Over 50 folks joined us, North Bay Cohousing, on Sept 13th in Novato, CA to learn about two real and now cohousing opportunities in the North Bay: a Novato site for sale and a Cotati site under contract. During the presentation, we dove into the actualities of building new cohousing communities in the region, with… Read More
Land Use Regulations, Urban Planners, and Intentional Communities
[Editor’s Note: This article reprinted from Communities Magazine is authored by Robert Boyer, an Assistant Professor of Geography and Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte. Robert has researched cohousing and ecovillage initiatives around the world, and was an enthusiastic participant at the 2015 National Cohousing Conference.] We love our property rights in the United States. The… Read More
Dallas Visit: Encouraging Cohousing in the Big State of Texas
I enjoyed a visit to Dallas last weekend, at the invitation of entrepreneurs Angela Alston and Hugh Resnick, who have spearheaded Dallas Cohousing, a group forming in urban Dallas. We held a public presentation at a co-working venue, The Grove (another impressive example of collaboration) followed the next day with a roll-up-the-sleeves discussion with a… Read More
What are some ways to encourage people to create low-income cohousing?, Suggestions: 1. Define “low income.” “Affordable” is not a euphemism for “low income.” Affordable is usually defined as 80% of the average cost of a similar housing unit in the area. That could be in the millions and still be called “affordable.” HUD’s definitions… Read More
When I lived in a “normal” house total strangers did not call me up and ask to visit. Cohousing is different. This happens all the time at Wolf Creek Lodge, a senior cohousing community in Grass Valley, CA. When we were a brand new community we thought this was kind of fun. We still love… Read More
“Sense of the Meeting” Minutes for Plenary
When I do minutes, I do not try to provide court transcripts; I don’t have the training or the equipment, and in any event, modern audio recording devices often do that as well or better than a typist. The bigger issue, however, is that in court proceedings, the dialogs and exchanges follow a vigorously regulated… Read More
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