As we encourage more people to consider living in cohousing, we love to emphasize the benefits. They include supportive neighbors, less space needed due to more sharing, and better ways to get our aging-in-community needs met in senior or intergenerational communities.

However, an oft-heard challenge when spreading the word is that it is “not affordable.” Our movement’s reliance on creating market-rate housing is part of what helps our communities get built and financed. It also provides an easy exit when someone wants or needs to move ⎯ they can sell their home and afford another home of similar size in a given housing market. But that doesn’t help someone who can’t afford to get in the door, and rental options in most U.S. cohousing neighborhoods are limited.

Given the dramatic increases in housing prices across the country (and the growing disparity in incomes), many have come to see cohousing as part of the problem. They see it as linked to a system that creates financial barriers for someone who isn’t already a homeowner or who didn’t luck out with a home purchase long ago.

We may have done a wonderful job of working together and creating something that serves members and owners well. But it can be (perhaps rightfully) perceived as self-serving, for the benefit the lucky few, rather than a tool that can help many people and continue to be relevant.

There are solutions

I’ve lived in two cohousing neighborhoods and visited more than 135 in the U.S. over the past quarter-century. I’ve seen many communities address this challenge through tools that help reduce costs, ease financing, or otherwise increase affordability for members.

When it was getting started over three decades ago, my home community in Berkeley, California, worked out an arrangement with the city to reduce permit costs and cap prices (with adjustments for our improvements and inflation). We did this instead of contributing to a city affordable-housing fund or making one unit more affordable at the cost of increasing all the other home prices.

The city set up deed restrictions that made this work for multiple unit owners over a 30-year span. That time is now is coming to an end. Thus, we’re looking for new ways to keep prices down enough to be accessible for future members who can’t afford current costs (just like we couldn’t when the community started).

My neighbor Alice, a community founder now in her 80s, is a lifelong activist currently living on a fixed income below the poverty line. Our particular city arrangements prevented her from using her home equity to support her in later years, as she had originally planned.

A new approach

Luckily, we came up with a novel approach that other communities could adopt for members facing similar challenges. The Squirrel Fund, a crowdfunded reverse mortgage, would allow members and other friends and supporters to make secured loans to help cover Alice’s property taxes and HOA dues. That way, she’d have enough money for food and other expenses. The arrangement would, on Alice’s death, pay off the loans as part of a transfer of her home to a Community Land Trust (CLT) or similar organization (such as a Permanent Real Estate Co-op). Then it could be affordable to another person like her, with a new deed restriction ensuring permanent affordability.

We’re delighted to see that we’re not alone ⎯ other communities are also pursuing innovative paths to ensure that their community can be inclusive and accessible over time. Village Cohousing, the first such community in Madison, Wisc., recently joined forces with an area CLT. The founders are leaving their home to the community, and the community is bringing in the organization to run it (see sidebar).

Perhaps there’s a way your community, or even just individual homeowners, could choose a similar option? These examples can, I hope, inspire us to tap our collective wisdom and forge new paths that help us live our values and ensure a legacy that stretches beyond our own lives and time as neighbors.

Community Land Trust partnership MACLT Executive Director Olivia Williams stands with a MACLT homebuyer and her daughter at the VCC Celebration, in front of MACLT’s new permanently affordable condo. In May this year, Village Cohousing Community (VCC) and Madison Area Community Land Trust (MACLT) came together to celebrate a new partnership to preserve permanent affordability within the VCC cohousing community. Inspired by founders Art and Sue Lloyd, who helped make original units affordable through personal loans, VCC took a bold next step: committing their founders’ former home to MACLT to ensure it remains affordable forever. This is MACLT’s first condo unit inside an otherwise market-rate development. As a pilot, it opens doors for other condominiums and cohousing developments to consider partnerships with CLTs to increase the availability of condo and cohousing homes for low-income buyers. This way, a unit could stay affordable forever. This partnership is a meaningful milestone for both VCC and MACLT. It serves as an inspiring example of how individuals and communities can take bold steps to preserve affordability and expand access to housing.  Thanks to Village Cohousing Community, the City of Madison, Wisconsin, Partnership for Housing Development and Threshold Builds for making this partnership possible. See related article here.

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Upcoming events

June 10 — The Commons, a free monthly gathering for the cohousing curious and experts, too; 10 a.m. MST; repeats on the 10^th of each month; link.

June 20 — Seniors in Cohousing Q&A, an informal facilitated conversation for those who are interested in senior cohousing and/or senior living in intergenerational cohousing; 10 a.m. MDT; repeats on the 20^th of each month; register here. Once registered, you’ll receive an email before the meeting with a link to join the call on Zoom.

Nov. 2 — A Gathering on Collaborative Neighborhoods in Sacramento, CA. Start thinking about it now! A CohoUS regional conference “exploring innovative and people-powered ways to live in community.” Two days of tours before the conference — stay tuned for details soon.

CohoUS offers many live and on-demand courses on a wide range of topic related to cohousing in general. Peruse them here.

The Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC) also offers a wide range of on-demand and rerun online courses. Check them out here

Find out about becoming a CohoUS member here. 

See the CohoUs mission and vision statement here.