Imagine a neighborhood that integrates sustainable design with an active, supportive community life. Neighbors know one another. They have worked with an architect to design their dream environment that will rest lightly on the earth.
What is cohousing?
Co-housing is basically like modern village life, blending the privacy of your own home with the warmth and support of a tight-knit community environment. Residents live in private houses, townhomes, or apartments which are centered around shared areas, in a way that is designed to spark connection, with places such as common gardens, walking paths, and a “common house” where neighbors can cook, eat, and gather together for meals and other events.
How does co-housing work?
Although everyone has a private dwelling, neighbors share resources and work together to care for the community. This might look like borrowing tools, organizing babysitting swaps, and hosting regular community events in the common house. Most cohousing communities host regular meals, maintain the neighborhood together, and celebrate milestones with one another, whether big or small.
Cohousing is normally legally organized as a homeowner association (HOA) or some kind of housing cooperative, and many communities choose community land trusts in order to ensure long-term affordability. Hope Family Village will be a Community Land Trust, where families will own their homes with a 99 year ground lease. Ultimately, the heart of cohousing is the everyday intentions that go behind it: cooperation, communication, and shared community.
Why do people choose cohousing?
Cohousing is designed to make connections happen naturally and effortlessly between neighbors. The neighborhood itself becomes an invitation–the physical layout of a cohousing neighborhood allows neighbors to cross paths, check in and chat with each other, and support one another while respecting personal boundaries and privacy. Instead of long driveways, lawns, and isolated houses, homes are arranged in a way that creates a village-like environment, with cars normally parked on the periphery so that shared common areas belong to the residents, instead of vehicles and traffic. This allows children to play safely without traffic, and adults to walk and gather without noise, fumes, or other hindrances.
It is this characteristic that draws many people to cohousing communities. In a world where many people struggle to find community, support, and belonging, cohousing offers a way to rebuild what many modern neighborhoods have lost.