"It really feels like the cohousing movement and the national Association have taken a big step forward this year."
Jim Leach, Wonderland Hill and Silver Sage
Cohousing is good, we know this! Good for enhancing our lives, raising our children, supporting our seniors, creating resilient neighborhoods, and improving our environment.
If you are part of a community, you've created a legacy that will live on to support future individuals and families.
Coho/US is well positioned to keep us learning from each other, to get the word out about our amazing model for living, to grow our movement for a more collaborative society. But we need everyone's support to keep this work going!
This past year saw tremendous progress:
* A "Next Generation"
National Cohousing Conference
enjoyed record attendance. From Chuck Durrett, ".
..all the organizers and volunteers did a phenomenal job...this was the best cohousing conference I've attended."
* Our 2016 Aging Better Together Conference promises transformation.
* The
Cohousing Directory Map
profiles our exponential growth: 157 established communities and 100 forming groups.
* Our enhanced
Coho/US website
receives thousands of visitors looking for resources to find, create and sustain cohousing. "Without Coho/US, I would have given up a long time ago...the organization helped me stay on the right path," shares Marty Maskell, Fair Oaks EcoHousing.
* A strategic partnership with
National Cooperative Bank
has increased access to financing for cohousing, a counter to the frustration many of us have experienced educating, and re-educating, potential lenders.
* Enhancing the vibrancy of our communities, Coho/US has encouraged the practice of
tune ups
. "Our retreat was widely acknowledged as a valuable turning point in our evolution," Michael Madera, New View Cohousing.
* A
National Cohousing Open House Day
planned for April 30, 2016 will attract the public to cohousing, and help you build a robust waiting list.
Our small but dedicated part-time staff and a national network of committed volunteers has created this progress, but it is made possible by you and your gift of support.
Please consider a year-end tax-deductible gift:
*
Donate Now Online
* Mail a check to Coho/US, 130 Hunt St #405, Durham NC 27701
Many thanks, Alice Alexander, Coho/US Executive Director
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Conferences & Events
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Conference | May 20-21, 2016 | Salt Lake City
Produced by Coho/US and SageHill Cohousing
 Whatever these words may bring up for you, one thing is for sure - just as cohousing itself is a collaborative process and group effort, it will be with this event as well. We invite your community, whether a newly forming seedling, actively growing or an established forest, to open its doors and hearts and welcome public visitors. Coho/US is offering a national platform for each community to create a fun, educational and welcoming event
read more...
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Ann Zabaldo, MidAtlantic Cohousing
Happily Ever Aftering in Cohousing: A Handbook for Community Living is a slim book that packs a big message. Written by Charles (a.k.a Chuck) Durrett with Bernice Gonzalez and Erik Bonnett of  McCamant & Durrett Architects, the book compiles best practices for living in cohousing....The introduction alone is the single best constructed argument of why do cohousing in the first place posing the singular question: "If it doesn't work socially, why bother?" The book describes areas of best practices for insuring a healthy, working, collaborative community.... let's begin at the very end with ... The Cohousing Tax. Here is Chuck's description:
We all have to pay taxes to government, that's a given. Cohousing is no different. The cohousing tax is what we pay to receive all the gifts we get day after day, big and small. ...Every day it seems I receive 20 to 40 warm smiles... However, every month or so I get a frown.
Read more
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Jenny Godwin of CoHousing Solutions
What a great concept!
Social capital's a fairly common buzzword these days, but I especially like the idea of taking stock of our connections. This
 notion, of a social portfolio, has been on my mind all week. In our age of near-constant digital connectivity, embracing our tangible community circles seems about as important as ever. I say this as a millennial, who's blessed to live in a tight-knit town. Yet this value finds equal footing as we age - and the clip where this concept came from brings this idea home.
"Autonomy is most people's biggest priority. Help is the sunny side of control."
read more
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The Advantages of Discussions on Email
Sharon Villines, Takoma Village Cohousing
This post is on a neighborhood discussion list and will be seemingly
 off-topic but bear with me.
Our neighborhood list, TakomaDC where Takoma Village Cohousing is located, started in the 1990s as a way to notify each other of crimes in the neighborhood. In 2003 when ownership was transferred to me, it had 400 subscribers. It now has almost 3,000 who live in this neighborhood and nearby, plus representatives of the mayor's office and elected officials who respond to postings about problems - no trash pick up, open water hydrants, abandoned cars, etc. The list is the center of communication in the neighborhood. Read more
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Living in Community
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What a Long Strange Trip it Still Is - Aging Better Together and the Power of Community
Alan O'Hashi, Silver Sage Village (Boulder, Colorado)
I live in the Silver Sage Village senior cohousing community in  North Boulder...recently the community began discussing "aging in community" which has been on my mind quite a bit, lately....I'm making a documentary movie about my and my neighbors' experiences of growing old in cohousing and their thoughts about the future. I'm also helping produce a national conference on the topic that will be held next May in Salt Lake City...My movie won't be anything earth shattering, but hopefully will give others wanting to start up an intentional community some insight into what to expect. These discussions are about the first ones we've had in the five years I've been living at Silver Sage Village where the topic has been about something more substantive than maintaining the buildings.
Read more
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Cohousing Research Network
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Dr. Angela Sanguinetti, for CRN and Coho/US Board
CRN (Cohousing Research Network) is seeking to support the Aging Better Together conference in Salt Lake City next May. We are gathering and conducting research on aging in senior cohousing and intergenerational cohousing to share at the conference. If you live in senior cohousing or are a senior living in intergenerational cohousing and are willing to help us by participating in research and/or distributing a survey to members of your community, please contact Angela Sanguinetti, Coho/US Board Member and CRN Director, at angelasanguinetti@gmail.com or 209-277-9782.
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End Notes
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Tucson Cohousing Communities Committed to Sustainability
Alice Alexander, Coho/US Executive Director
Tucson is home to three thriving cohousing communities, which I had the pleasure of visiting recently. All are mature communities, built over a decade ago. I was struck by the creative incorporation of sustainable design and community practices, a smart approach given the dessert climate. A few interesting notes:
Sonora Cohousing hosts a homeschooling group that welcomes homeschoolers from around Tucson; Stone Curves Cohousing is an urban in-fill community which has integrated permaculture and renewable energy systems, with beautiful landscaping and
building designs.
Milagro Cohousing is a demonstration of ecological community living, recently hosting a talk on Re-imagining Community through Local
Food. "Milagro" means miracle in Spanish! The Tucson communities may host a Regional Cohousing Conference in winter 2018, stay tuned.
Communities Directory Campaign - the Fellowship for Intentional Community has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $6000-the funds needed to assemble a new print version of their flagship publication, Communities Directory (7th edition).
Cohousing Communities - existing, building and forming - are encouraged to give annually.
Please consider becoming a
Sustaining Community
by pledging to contribute each year, for five years, with a minimum of $300 - and
receive one free registration to the National Cohousing Conference.
Established Communities = 157
Completed = 132
Building* = 25
Own Site = 21
Forming = 97
*
Many building communities have residents but continue to add members and build homes.
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Copyright 2015 The Cohousing Association of the United States All rights reserved.
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Homes for Sale Seeking Members
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David Roberts, Vox Media Inc
Our ability to form and maintain friendships is shaped in crucial ways by the physical spaces in which we live. "Land use," as it's rather aridly known, shapes behavior and sociality. And in America we have settled on patterns of land use that might as well have been designed to prevent spontaneous encounters, the kind out of which rich social ties are built.
Conogram Magazine
The Leonardsmiths and Taylors joke that their two houses are now a co- housing community, but with a new fence encircling a shared backyard, a communal tool shed with newly co-purchased lawn mower, an extra bin on one house's garbage service, and a reflector to aim WiFi from door to door, that description of their situation isn't that far from the truth.
Steve Chiasson, 63, a founding member at Belfast Cohousing &  Ecovillage, said the experience of helping create the community he lives in, the responsibility of shaping it going forward in the company of thoughtful, values-driven neighbors "helps me feel more relevant and engaged," he said. "And we all know that staying active, physically and mentally, keeps us healthier as we age."
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Resources
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Cohousing Directory Updates
Has purchased land in Durham, NC
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