Tag Archives: cooperative housing

Boulder Co-living – Nuts and Bolts

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The burning souls organize gatherings for the future residents to get together and talk about the nature of their community.

What are the general steps to building the Boulder Co-living community? There will be people who get involved with various levels of interest ranging from the “Burning soul” advocates to the passively interested who sit back and watch how the project comes together. Nonetheless, there are three basic steps:

Feasibility study

  • Discuss and agree upon community values and perhaps, a higher purpose, which would fill the need to walk their community values talk while participating in service projects;
  • Whether you’re 30 or 80 people, come up with a name and “elevator speech” identifying the community. Referring to yourselves as a “bunch of housemates” doesn’t tell about your community story;
  • Community cohesiveness could be built around a higher purpose of community service that binds a community together.
  • Once you kick the can down the road a few blocks, check your state laws about homeowner association regulations. You will find they set up HOAs that do not mirror co-living very well – lots of centralized power and control, lots of voting.

Develop budgets

  • There likely will be common expenses that relate to community activities, coordinating transportation, common meals, intra-community communication and a fee structure to pay for all or part.
  • Community values and mission are implemented through the budget by teams – overall steering team equivalent to a board of directors, social events, managing building and grounds, proceed and governance, finances and legal matters,
  • The entire community approves by consensus the budget or any action for that matter, and the steering team ratifies the action also by consensus.

Design and Construction

  • If you’re sharing a big house, there will be design issues about designating common spaces and storage. Some design and construction in retrofits may be necessary if you’re in an existing condo community or apartment building is adapted. This may include renovating an existing dwelling unit into a common space with a guest room and common kitchen which was the case at Boulder Creek cohousing in Colorado;
  • Identify resident needs, how the “site” functions – if it is in an existing physical development like a condo association, apartment complex, or households dispersed within a given boundary;
  • Determine what are considered “common spaces” which may not be literally common, but function in common. These may be in private homes for shared meals and meetings, civic spaces, churches, libraries

Boulder Co-living: What is it and why?

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The Boulder Co-living community is a proposed diverse income co-op housing / cohousing hybrid that is largely governed and managed by the residents

There are some estimates that up to two-thirds of renters across the nation say they can’t afford to buy a home. Since home prices are rising at a rate twice that of wage growth, saving up for that down payment is an even bigger challenge.

Millenials and GenXers with high student debt are in this boat, as are some older folks who for one reason or another were unable to build any extra savings.

In a high-cost place like Boulder, Colorado, if you didn’t get started here at least 25 years ago, or came to town with a big wad of money, finding a place to live is a challenge – and that’s an understatement.

The Boulder Co-living community is proposed as a place for neighbors with diverse incomes from as low as 50 percent of the area media income can live. The project proposal is planned for a small lot known as Quadrant 4 on the Boulder Junction former Pollard motors site generally located at 30th and Pearl Street, and submitted at the end of March.

The city of Boulder will evaluate proposals and hopes to have a project selected by the end of April.

We want to develop a list of people interested in the project, particularly potential owners. There have been a couple informational meetings and recorded as a youtube video you can view.

Check out and see if you’re eligible for the city of Boulder Affordable Housing program. Becoming qualified ahead of time will give you a head start, for any home you may find that meets your needs as part of this project or otherwise.

High-density communities, such as Boulder Co-living, are seen as one way to provide affordable housing to owners and renters. Two such configurations are “cohousing” and “co-op housing” will be hybridized in the Boulder Co-living community.

In a cohousing neighborhood, residents own their homes, but agree through a shared vision and list of values to maintain and operate their community through participation in activities like mowing the lawn, weeding the garden and shoveling snow, while enjoying each other’s company at shared meals a couple times a week.

Similarly, residents of a rental cooperative house have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork. The residents typically govern through consensus and share responsibilities and resources. New members are typically selected by the community’s existing membership, rather than by real estate agents, property managers or non-resident landowners.

If you can’t afford to buy a home or your rent is too high how can Boulder Co-living meet your needs?

Research points to a variety of co-living benefits. The most often mentioned benefits relate to reducing social isolation. The co-living “secret sauce” provides for intentional socializing, neighborly support when a neighbor is under the weather; sharing chores, expertise; and having neighbors who share similar interests and values.

What is co-living “secret sauce”? Co-living has certain basic characteristics. They are fairly broad, but include:

  • Relationships – Neighbors commit to being part of a community for mutual benefit. Co-living cultivates a culture of sharing and caring. Design features facilitate community-member interaction.
  • Balancing Privacy and Community – Co-living communities are designed for privacy as well as community. Residents balance privacy and community by choosing their levels of community engagement.
  • Participation – Decision-making is participatory and often based on consensus. Selft management empowers residents, builds relationships and can save money.
  • Shared Values – Co-living communities support residents in actualizing shared values.

If you’re into energy efficiency; resource reuse and recycling; use your bike, feet, or bus to get yourself around, the Boulder Co-living community may be the place for you.

Part III – Diverse Personalities: Let’s get personal with cultural competency

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Click on the image of Dorothy and Glinda and watch the clip about how Dorothy always had the way to get back home.

Remember the climax of the “Wizard of Oz” when Dorothy gets herself back to Kansas?

Good Witch of the North Glinda lets Dorothy in on the secret that she’s always had the way to return home.

What do Dorothy and the interactive Dealing with Diverse Personalities retreat have in common?

Previously, I wrote about risk factors and how they may contribute to conflicts among diverse personalities and how protective factors can buffer against risks.

One strong protective factor is cultural competency.

We all are capable to become more culturally competent by evaluating ourselves and learning, sometimes through hard knocks, that we inherently have the ability to be more accepting of others  and their personalities and to better understand our own personality quirks which may cause difficulties for

Like Dorothy having to decide which Yellow Brick Road fork to take, evading flying monkeys, liquidating the Wicked Witch of the West, it takes work for each of us to realize that we possess the inherent abilities to understand ourselves and others. Sometimes we need a little help from our own Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow.

What is cultural competency and why is it different from learning about diversity?

—If you do a google search, there are many iterations and definitions. For my purposes, cultural competency is a developmental process that evolves over an extended period of time. At any given moment, depending on past histories and experiences, individuals, groups and communities possess various levels of cultural awareness, knowledge and skills necessary to deal with other people – all of us are different.

It’s a very personal journey and at the Dealing with Diverse Personalities retreat, we’ll start the voyage by remembering our histories, developmental influences and how those experiences affect how we perceive and understand others.

Diversity, on the other hand, is descriptive of various groups. Learning aspects of diversity is daunting since there are so many ethnicities, nationalities, religions, languages, that the list is nearly endless. It’s not practical to try and learn them all.

On top of those is the endless list of personality types – extroverts / introverts; over achievers / passive; yes people / no people.

Because of our limited knowledge of diverse characteristics, judgements lead to unintentional stereotyping. Stereotyping is making decisions based on inaccurate or incomplete information.

Cultural competence is self-guided work that will begin or continue at the Dealing with Diverse Personalities retreat. Participants will realize that it is possible to shed behaviors, recognize privilege, understand the need to make personal sacrifices for the good of the whole. The process can be difficult, you may lose friends, but make better ones, and it takes time.

We appeal to all learning styles – auditory, visual and hands-on. Roll up your sleeves and join us. If you’re already on the journey, want to start a new voyage, are interested in helping your organization or community avoid conflicts among diverse personalities which may include yourself, then sign up for the Dealing with Diverse Personalities retreat September 30 – October 2nd.

“There’s no place like home.”