Cohousing--The neighborly, sustainable lifestyle

First, a little backstory to help you understand why I'm so keen on the idea of living in a lively community. I grew up in a series of small towns. As I said in Building Ordinary--Building Community, "my favorite was a village in Nebraska ten miles from the closest real town. We had a post office, a general store, a blacksmith, one church, one cafe, one bar, and a school--nine grades in three classrooms, with just three teachers. We're talking small community."

Fall, winter and spring, after school, on weekends and all summer long, we children lived outdoors. We went inside for supper and to sleep. The whole village, and some of the surrounding fields and farmland were our playground. We learned self-sufficiency from an early age.

Kids running wild and free
In second grade, we learned how to build and tend a fire safely, so one day when I was eight, I grabbed a pack of wieners from the fridge. My friend across the street brought a pack of buns. Another kid brought some marshmallows. Some of the kids had pocket knives and cut some sticks for roasting the dogs and marshmallows while the other big girl (she was nine) and I built the fire in an empty lot. When we were finished, we put the fire out carefully, kicking dirt over it, pouring buckets of water, then separating the sticks and making sure they were out. Afterwards, we traipsed off across the hill behind the village and, for the rest of the day, hiked around the farms we liked best. We knew where to find the ripest apples, the coolest water to slake our thirst and the shadiest tree to rest our bones..

Years later, I asked my mom how she could let us go off like that, all alone, all day long. She said it was easy. Every mom watched for the kids. We were never completely out of someone's sight. One mom would call the next and say, "They're headed your way. Keep an eye on 'em."

Can cohousing offer similar freedoms?
Can you imagine letting your children out of your sight for that long today? Would your children be as self-sufficient as we were then, and at that age? My daughters may have had ballet, gymnastics and music lessons, but they missed out on a lot of the blue-sky, deep-grass pleasures of my childhood. Not all children in cohousing communities will have the opportunities we had, but I daresay a few might come close.

So what is cohousing anyway, and how is it similar--and different--from the villages of my childhood?

Image copyright L Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Cohousing offers privacy in home ownership and the companionship and support of a close-knit community, with an emphasis on sustainable lifestyle.

Cohousing neighborhoods usually comprise a cluster of single-family, fully equipped homes or apartments and one or more community buildings, courtyards and playgrounds. Residents pay dues for the upkeep of the common buildings and grounds, and may participate in work days throughout the year. Usually they share meals a few times a week.

Quite often they share community tools, such as lawnmowers; and major appliances, such as washers and dryers, even a community freezer.

Their neighborhood may be in the inner city, like Eastern Village in Silver Spring, MD; suburban like Wild Sage Cohousing in Boulder, CO; or rural, like Higher Ground Cohousing outside Bend, OR.

While some communities are designed with live-work space and encourage cottage industry, community-owned businesses are rare.

Image: Garden path at the Commons on the Alameda
Used with permission

I'm not the only person who loves the idea of living in community more like the villages of old. Cohousing has been around awhile. Way back in 1964, a Danish architect attempted to build the first cohousing development. They called it "living community." He failed, but the Danes kept at it, and in the early Eighties there were twenty-two cohousing communities in Denmark. The Danes continue to lead the way in developing the cohousing lifestyle.

Cohousing is now a well-established housing option in Denmark. Not only do new communities continue to be built, but the concept has been incorporated into master plans for large areas of new development.

Danny Milman in
Where It All Began: Cohousing in Denmark

Image courtesy Cohousing Association of the United States (CoHo/US).
Photo by Evangeline Welch

Let me introduce you to two model cohousing projects: Santa Fe Cohousing's Commons on the Alameda, and La Querencia in Fresno, California.

In a March 2005 El Dorado Sun article, members of The Commons on the Alameda community reveal some of the difficulties they have had getting along and how they solve the problems.

Member Erica Elliott tells the Sun personal conflicts were so difficult after the first three years that, "I came to a point where I needed to make a decision because the discomfort of living in this fledgling community was so great for me. I saw I had three choices: to change the community, to move away or to change myself."

Erica realized that she had no power to change the community, "That happens when it happens, not according to my will!"

As a single mom, she felt overwhelmed to make another major change and move, "so the only viable option was to change myself."

"We have a shared history over this past decade," Erica tells the Sun. "You carry the archives of somebody's history in your heart and they yours. That's so special in these transitory times ... We grew up together."

For a deeper exploration of conflict in community, and how to plan for conflict resolution from the get-go, see Diana Leafe Christian's article Six Ingredients for Forming Communities (That Help Reduce Conflict Down the Road).

Image courtesy Commons on the Alameda
Homeowners Association

Our dream is to create a neighborhood that recaptures the essence of community: To create a human environment that fosters interconnectedness, safety, growth, and meaningful lives; to create physical aspects that serve the needs and enhance the well-being of the individuals and the community; and to live in harmonious relationship to our place on the earth.

Rocky Hill Cohousing

The U.S. Cohousing Association boasts member associations in eleven countries. Communities range from urban to rural. All are concerned with quality of life where neighbor knows neighbor, children play safely, and a sense of community is encouraged.

Want to see what cohousing looks like? Take a virtual tour right now. Exciting isn't it? So many beautiful ways homes and communities can be built. Would you like to tour a real cohousing development? Find one near you, then click through to see if they accept visitors.

For more information, follow any of the links above to the Cohousing Association of the United States. If you live outside the US, you will find links to international associations as well. The Cohousing Association is a nonprofit organization and can always use volunteers and donations to keep the information flowing.

If you think you'd like to explore the possibility of joining a sustainable community, Communities Magazine offers up-to-date information and commentary. Published by the Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC), each issue explores a single theme about developing, planning, or living in an intentional community. Plus, you'll get to know regular columnists who have been there, done that.

Cover photo image ©2006, Jan Steinman
www.Bytesmiths.com
All rights reserved. Used with permission.

All text and images on this lens, unless otherwise noted, with the exception of advertisements, product images and Squidoo-generated images and text, are copyright L Kathryn Grace, all rights reserved. To request permission to use any of my images or text, contact me.

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