Page 18 - C.A.L.L. #44 - Fall 2018

The momentum for cohousing has been growing. The National Building Museum in
Washington notes the recent “boom in cohousing communities nationwide” in a current
exhibition. One reason for the boom is that cohousing construction is seen as a good

investment, says Richard Jenkens, director of social impact initiatives at the National
Cooperative Bank, a Washington lender that finances cohousing projects.

Sixty-two percent of people polled in a Cohousing Research Network survey last spring said

sale prices of cohousing units in their communities have been rising, according to an analyst
for the network, Angela Sanguinetti. But substantial down payments are not always required for
prospective residents. Many developments offer units eligible for Federal Housing
Administration loans.

“I’ve seen some terrific examples of cohousing developments that incorporate a number of
low-income units, as many as 20 to 40 per cent,” Jenkens said.

Still, there are those for whom cohousing might not work.

“Some people feel that cohousing is too much togetherness,” says social scientist Bella
DePaulo, who wrote about cohousing in her book How We Live Now: Redefining Home and

Family in the 21st Century. The model is also not for those who bristle at the self-governing
element, she adds. Then there is cohousing’s association with hippies.

“People immediately think communes, but cohousing is not a commune where everyone lives

under one roof,” DePaulo says.

For ageing hippies and baby boomers, however, dedicated cohousing for older people offers
an alternative to a retirement home.

“It’s definitely a good ageing-in-place or downsizing model for people in their fifties and early
sixties who still have quite a bit of life ahead of them but want to move out of the old family
house because they want less maintenance,” says Jim Leach, 77, a founder of Silver Sage

Village, a cohousing community of mostly old folk in Boulder.

Community living can also be a balm for the documented isolation and loneliness plaguing
older Americans, which researchers say threatens public health. According to a 2010 AARP

survey, social networks ease the loneliness that can follow the loss of a spouse or family
members moving, Karin Hoskin says.

“People aren’t staying where they grew up anymore,” she adds, “and a huge trend among

seniors is that they don’t have their siblings or their kids around them because they’ve gone
away to university or moved out of state for a job. Living in a community can help people feel
connected.”

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