Cohousing Is… 

Many people are familiar with the idea that if the neighbor next door cares, or better yet, if an entire covey of neighbors that surround you really care about who lives next door — and who can act to support them—then the need for external behavior control mechanisms (from outside the community) diminishes immensely; likewise, the need for outside care or support, like psychological therapy, are less frequently outsourced from the community or not outsourced at all. Every one of these line items is immensely affected. 

BE A neighbor

When folks feel accountable to their next-door neighbor, and don’t call the police just because someone parked in their driveway, then the costly police are less required. The number one call received by the fire department where I live in Nevada County, California, is a “pick-up and put-back” call (i.e. a senior has fallen in their own house and needs to be helped into bed). A huge portion of our county’s millions and millions of dollars of fire department budget goes toward providing services that a neighbor could do.

“cohousing”

In 1985, Kathryn McCamant & Charles Durrett coined the term “cohousing” for a Danish concept they spent considerable time learning about in Denmark. Since that time, McCamant (who is now CoHousing Solutions) and Durrett have worked with groups to create high functioning neighborhoods in the United States and Canada. The Cohousing Company has designed over 50 cohousing communities, and there are over 150 active and forming cohousing communities (the numbers are growing) to date. 

communities

Cohousing communities consist of private homes that are strategically positioned around Common Area to facilitate maximum possibility of social interaction between neighbors. One key characteristic of cohousing communities is breaking bread together regularly in the Common House. Cohousing communities are created and managed by its residents, who value a healthy mixture of privacy and community. Sustainability and innovation are two words often associated with these communities – natural products of people working with one another for community sake. 

There are six defining characteristics to cohousing:

What it is and what it isn’t

It’s important to recognize that “cohousing” is distinctive from other shared housing or communal situations. There are distinctive qualities that a cohousing communities hold (common meals, committee meetings, etc.) which ensure a high functioning community – one where people communicate clearly and are supporting each other for the sake of the community. When the process is facilitated by trained cohousing professionals, like Katie McCamant of CoHousing Solutions, and when the community is designed by architects who understand how to work with cohousing groups and design community-oriented neighborhoods, like The Cohousing Company, a cohousing group has the best chance of success. There are many “cohousing-like” set-ups, some that even call themselves cohousing, but dissolve after a few years, or are dysfunctional. And there are communes and coops – different living models altogether. The other models may work, but are not cohousing. 

Cohousing, is not a new concept – there is no reinventing the wheel. It’s recognizing the importance of having neighbors you know and break bread with. Cohousing communities learn to make decisions together for the benefit of the community. They also have the choice to be alone, to go into their individual home. Though the word “cohousing” is relatively new, it really is the modern version of age-old community ideals where children were adored and elders were looked up to, and both were cared for by the community. 

Environmentally friendlier

Inherently, cohousing is lighter on the environment that traditional housing, because residents share lawn mowers, laundry, social space, and more. Energy consumption is lessened per individual household because private homes are smaller and more efficient heating and cooling options can be afforded when purchased for the community to use. Alternative energy, such as solar panels, are also an option that many cohousing communities choose, which further lowers energy costs. In a recent study of 200 cohousing residents, savings were up to $2000 per year per household. Clearly, the cohousing model is a more environmental way to live.

learn more about cohousing

To learn more about cohousing, we can’t recommend enough reading the books. Creating Cohousing: Building Sustainable Communities (McCamant & Durrett) and The Senior Cohousing Handbook: A Community Approach to Independent Living are two of the many resources by Charles Durrett, used by cohousing communities worldwide to facilitate the process from start to finish. Cohousing is a proactive endeavor, which means those interested must reach out to their surrounding community to educate them. Because not every town has a Chuck Durrett, he’s made it possible (through the books and trainings) for individuals to step up. 

HOW TO GET THE BOOKS OUT

I buy boxes of books for every project. 

One for the banker (so it can sit on his/her coffee table until the spouse asks, “Why wouldn’t you finance this?”), to the next-door neighbor, to the planners, to the fire department – to everyone who needs to know about the cohousing project. The investment of giving books away for free is infinitesimal compared to the savings. To get the affordability that we need, we seem to always need major dis-compensations – half of the parking, twice the height limit or whatever, and many of them. The books helps all of the partners realize the why, and equally important, the why wouldn’t we? We can make it in an experiment or whatever method people need to see the benefit and therefore justify the exception.

When we were serious about getting cohousing started in San Francisco, I personally visited each bookstore (there were about 30 at the time). It took a weekend. I took a couple copies of the book and had a couple of newspaper articles in my hand to show that cohousing was getting press. Thousands of books sold in the San Francisco area immediately.

Once we got the books in the bookstore in San Francisco, we circled back to remind them to keep them in stock, see if they needed more and most importantly to insert flyers in them regarding upcoming presentations. We built a relationship with them. This is targeted grassroots organizing, but nothing fancy. I’m certain that that bookstore weekend, and a couple of model projects, has led to almost (2) dozen communities being built in the San Francisco Bay Area.