Author: W. Corey Trench

You have followed our vision. A 25 acre-25 family innovation in community-centric mental health care, at an iconic site, for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

This month, we received word that a developer would be making an offer on 300 acres (est.) of Eastern State property (neighboring Eastern State Hospital and New Town) to the State General Services Department that includes Hope Family Village. A process will begin.

For the past three years, we have been following and participating with tmany stakeholders (James City County, General Services, Real Estate Department (their brokers), Colonial Behavioral Health, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and our state legislators. We have been visible in the Greater Williamsburg/James City Community, giving presentations.

We now find ourselves on the precipice of the next bold steps where dreams and destiny meet.

Shortly before receiving this news, we distributed our inaugural newsletter that will be one of our instruments toward attracting both equity members, and members, in Hope Family Village, the community. Along with our nonprofit, the equity members, the future residents, will be the actual co-community designers and co-developers. In expectation, we joined the Cohousing Community Launch Program, our project being an adaptation of cohousing.

In the next several months, we will be making more announcements about the project and schedule. Director Lisa Thomas heads our Village Team and has been active with her committee members concerning rendering an early community conceptual design, preliminary mapping work, and legal support.

Since our origin in 2017, we credit our board, and several key outside advisors (co-founders, donors, two W&M Business School Teams, NAMI Williamsburg and NAMI Mid-Tidewater), for figuring out the short steps to take toward designing and creating a neighborhood that would serve caregivers and their loved ones living with a diagnosed serious mental illness.

The smallest unit? One new family, four unrelated individuals, diagnosed with serious mental illness, living successfully together living in a regular neighborhood. Could we do it? What would we discover?

Could we identify and recruit four unrelated individuals who could live together, get along, support one another, take care of a house, and enjoy a better life?

Yes, we could.

After knowing and working with two of these gentlemen, as a lay person, no degree in social work, psychology, or psychiatry, for 5 – 7 years, and the families of all four, as a coach, I have learned about humanity. What it takes to live together. A very simple idea: You build your system together.

Through the Coalition for Community Living, we have learned about the principles and practices of operating a Fairweather Lodge. A model developed in 1963.

Even before we occupied a house, the members prepared a list of house rules and voted on them. They have held weekly meetings. Stayed current on rent. Filed quarterly outcomes reports (on 12 measures) with The Coalition for Community Living. Secured work. Volunteered in the community. On their daily walks, have met 15 neighbors. Experienced no hospitalizations.

What have we learned from operating this single home?

Understanding and acceptance are the key. Next, you mutually support one another. Recently, Steve had a medical test performed. He needed a ride and someone to wait for him. Scott was there.

Not everything goes well. It’s nice to have someone to commiserate with. Tell you it will be okay.

Everyone must pitch in to keep a house in order and clean, whether it’s leaving the kitchen clean as you found it, taking out the garbage, emptying the refrigerator of stale food, cleaning the bathrooms and vacuuming the floors, taking care of the lawn (mowing, leaf blowing, edging), and changing out air filters.

Each week the lodge members review the status of their medication compliance and medical appointments. They keep each other both honest and well.

Caregivers. Members need the support of their caregivers toward becoming independent. That could be financial or emotional support. Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? The lodge coordinator is a guide, not a parent. Family play an important role in being there for their loved ones. And, their loved loved ones often help them. The goal is to help the members become independent, while realizing the a lodge is about interdependence. In a real sense, the lodge is a new, created family. A microcosm of a neighborhood when you include family caregivers and nearby neighbors.

Families and neighborhoods work because we help each other.

As we consider next steps toward the village environment, we will need this same connection of families. A commitment to each other, in the same way the lodge members commit to each other. When we look at our society we see a society that is connectable by devices, but not necessarily communicating and functioning together. The brilliance of cohousing is that it creates that kind of human connection we remember when growing up in a neighborhood as kids.

When we started the lodge, a virtual lodge, the members were recruiting prospects. They began working together, sharing experiences about their weeks, goals that they hope to fulfill, and their aims for the next week. Over breakfast, we had a one-hour meeting. Weekly we did this. We built ties to one another. We backed each other up and that included me, the lodge coordinator.

Over time, we saw progress. Yes, it took a while. To find the right job. To find the house. To find the other members. We have inched our way into a self-sufficient life that the members will tell you is fun. It has not always been easy.

So, what are we looking for. Members of our community who can accept one another, and all the challenges brought with mental illness, and will pitch in to support one another.

Pre-Covid, we created environments where everyone was together, being together, breaking bread at a restaurant.

We worked with a team of W&M graduate and undergraduate business students, who organized a grand event. We cooked a meal together, played corn hole, and had a workshop as if caregivers and those with a diagnosis were living and sharing together in a Common House. A heart warming event that revealed what was possible.

Seven years ago, I joined the NAMI Williamsburg Board. I presented the idea of developing a village at Eastern State. It was a synthesis of ideas. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Daily Press about it. Three years later, the same paper wrote about us.

Novel ideas take time to evolve and improve. They require testing and new inputs. This could be the season for a big next step. I thank all of you who helped us get started, have stuck with us. We will prevail.

We wish to congratulate Sandy on her role as President of the Board of NAMI Virginia. This is a mature organization of 9 staff members and a new Executive Director. As a member of the Executive Committee and as Board VP, Sandy led critical staff changes in 2019, in taking on a new role as President of NAMI Virginia and playing numerous roles in the mental health arena, resigned as a board member this past year.

The following is my tribute to Sandy, which served as input into a Board Resolution shared with Sandy and her husband Court at our Annual Meeting.

Sandy has been faithful to the concept and realization of Hope Family Village from the beginning of our meeting. Even in resigning for the board, she has believed our project will happen at Eastern State. She kept us moving forward by always pushing for the next thing … consideration of a piece of property, becoming included in mental health conferences, and making her voice heard on our actions and direction as an organization. You need that kind of participation on a board. That will be missed.

In June 2015, at the NAMI Virginia Conference (Richmond, VA), a random encounter with Courtney Mottesheard led a connection with Sandy and 3-hour share session on our mutual concerns and interests, as caregivers, in creating permanent housing and support for those living with a serious mental illness, including our two sons.

Over the course of 9 months (June 2015 – February 2016), Sandy would write or call me about the next step. Urge me to do something. At the time, I did not know what to do beyond bugging Colonial Behavioral Health and our state legislators to take action. We had already introduced NAMI, Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS), Colonial Behavioral Health (CBH), NAMI Virginia and our families to Fairweather Lodge (September 2015 – March 2016). With an expectation for the future, I joined Coalition for Community Living (CCL) as an individual member and began attending monthly lodge coordinator calls. Was very involved with our NAMI, teaching the Family to Family Course. 

Finally, Sandy, out of frustration, proposed a date and requested I prepare a PSA. I did not know what this was. A Public Service Announcement (PSA) that she would advertise me as a speaker at the Gloucester Library. I had thought 20 minutes of talking and the balance of 2 hours on brainstorming. She said that that would never work. No one attending, she said, would know about Fairweather Lodge or another concept I was mulling over  called Cohousing. She “persuaded” me to talk for an hour, then conduct a brainstorming session. 

At this session, the group (24 people), which included housing officials, the head of the Community Services Board for Northern Neck, and NAMI caregivers and peers, participate in a creative thinking, guided exercise that resulted in the concept for Hope Family Village which would serve both caregivers and people living with a mental illness in the same designed neighborhood. We accepted that no one would be taking care of us. We would have to take the action.

In every respect, Sandy was the prime mover. I was the vision guy and could work with a group. But, she organized and communicated with the attendees. 

Together we identified 7 families, from our two NAMI Affiliates, who were motivated to talk about creating a cohousing village. We met at the St. Stephens Lutheran Church June 2016. Lee Griffin was one. Jerry Galloway another. They loved the idea, but could not see leaving their homes. Remaining were Sandy and Court, me, Carmen, Allen, and one other Gloucester family. 

Everyone was busy with NAMI stuff. (Sandy was facilitating support groups, teaching NAMI’s Family to Family Course in her NAMI Mid-Tidewater Affiliate, and she was also President.  She was a NAMI State Trainer of NAMI Programs.) So we decided to start having dinners like cohousing meals. Keeping us together while we thought about how to make our vision happen. We made a list of people to invite. Our first list. (They were from all over the state.) About that same time, Tom Rideout and I decided to contact Mason (August 2016) to do some independent study work. Flesh out the concept. I reached out to Sandy to tell her about the possible W&M  project and wrote her:

“You got all of us going. I needed the Gloucester library kickstart. I want to tell you more about this week before I write everyone.”

Sandy joined our Pizza Event on this first MBA study and she would followup and participate in the second W&M study as well. All the while, we kept having monthly family dinners. Our preferred placed was in Gloucester: Nick’s Spaghetti  and Steak House. Here our group came up with name for the organization that the MBA students were recommending we create as well as an initial vision statement, which we refined at planning group meetings in the business school on Saturdays. Sandy was a co-founder of Hope Family Village, but did not immediately join our board. As you recall, I knew she was busy with many NAMI and other activities and I wanted to keep it very simple at the start. I thought it terms of 5 people. But Sandy was persistent and wanted to be on our board. She became our 6th member on February 3, 2018.

Sandy participated in both W&M studies and helped organize all the dinners, which moved to Jimmy’s when she and Court moved to Lanexa. She would prompt me each month to write an update on our project, the nonprofit, Fairweather Lodge, and Eastern State. All the while, Sandy would be on the look out for property that would be suitable for Hope Family Village. She found a number of attractive parcels.

We stayed focussed on Eastern State, as a logical place for a pilot project. We were successful in getting a budget amendment for the set aside of property for Hope Family Village at Eastern State. The wording was odd and referred to DBHDS. I learned that Myra Signer, former Executive Director of NAMI VA, had become second in command at the Department. I asked Sandy to arrange a coffee with Myra, who she was good friends with, in Richmond. It was a very pleasant drive up and back March 2019. Myra congratulated us on being persistent all the way back to the days we would invite NAMI VA to learn about Fairweather Lodge. She followed up with Myra to create contacts inside DBDHS to help us make the project happen.

I remember the drive because it was the highlight of our mutual accomplishment, stemming back to our first meeting at the NAMI Virginia Conference almost four years earlier. It had been a long time. You could call it a celebration at having arrived – finally a connection to DBDHS and some respect for our persistence.

Sandy was able to secure two NAMI VA presentations for us. The first (June 2018) was difficult because the time kept being shortened. She had to fight for us 40 minutes. 

The NAMI VA Conference in 2019 was the first in several years. Sandy, once again, used her board influence to get us on the agenda. Finally, before Covid-19 happened, NAMI families from across the state were learning about us. They were amazed and inspired by what Hope Family Village had accomplished. We added to our list of interested families.

It has been a long time since I have posted. Like many of you, families and caregivers, life changed in mid-March 2020.

We had our last supper, so to speak, of Hope Family Village families at Jimmy’s in March. Jerry and Joy, one of our founding families, were bravely there. They are in their mid- to late 80s. They have always encouraged me. Been very active in NAMI Williamsburg, operating exhibits for both Hope Family Village and NAMI.

For the past six years, we have worked hard to secure land for a 25-family project that sought real care. A community of acceptance on property originally intended for that purpose. Through two VA State Governors, acreage has been identified on the Eastern State surplus property specifically for Hope Family Village Corporation. No small achievement, 25 acres have been promised for a $1 lease arrangement.

For over two years, we have patiently and consistently worked with the Office of General Services and James City County to address a need that can only grow in our country. Recently, we selected legal counsel to help us work through details to take a budgetary commitment and turn it into something tangible.

Some things are destiny. Even destiny requires persistence.

To carry on with our mission, we have been generously supported by The Griffin Family, Williamsburg Community Foundation, Exelon Corporation, and many other smaller donors. We are very judicious with our funds and proud of that. Everything we do is with volunteers. Yet, our funds go to real projects that change lives. Three guys, seeking a fourth, live in a permanent home. They are connected and receive my support as their coach through life. And, I am a regular Dad, the caregiver of a son living with a serious mental illness.

Andrea’s passing was very tough on me. She was an early member of the Williamsburg Fairweather Lodge. I was her lodge coordinator. She might have been an early victim of Covid; it is hard to know. Scott, Steve, Ben and me, you see us pictured above, have carried on. They decided to begin walking the neighborhood when everyone else was told to shudder in place. We had our meetings on Zoom, for my protection, as a senior for several months, but started an outdoor activity. No one has contracted the virus.

Steve and I have walked two miles a day almost every day since. We now know 12 families, who we formerly did not know, in our 50 home neighborhood. And, they know us. Some join us on occasion. We have begun talking about holding a Covid-safe block party for this Fall.

Establishing the first Fairweather Lodge in Virginia, a regular home for people living with a serious mental illness, living in a regular neighborhood, was a tangible project. And, the lodge passed its first full year of operation in July. To celebrate, we went golfing at Revolution Golf.

The guys have done fantastic work. I am proud of hem. They have filed all of their Quarterly Outcomes Reports to the Coalition for Community Living (zero hospitalizations); put out four newsletters; kept the house up; shared weekly Saturday morning breakfasts; volunteered in the community; and more. They are a family. A good neighbor.

What the lodge exemplifies is Hope Family Village. Yes, we want to build something new and important in our community. Something that addresses our loved ones and their 8.4 million caregivers. And, maybe many USA families are finding out that self-isolation, losing paying work, not connecting with friends and families, is hazardous to your mental and physical health. This is the Covid World. Look at all that has happened. It’s unbelievable.

As Hope Family Village, Fairweather Lodge, what we demonstrate is that there is light. There is hope. And, we do it right now, in our own neighborhood. And, there is no more cost-effective approach to wellness.

In real life we see and know angels. Andrea (an-Drey’-ya), as she preferred to be called, was such an angel. For those of us who knew her, we experienced her bright light.

Corey, Andrea, and Courtney, Hope Family Village Dinner,Jimmy’s, December 13, 2018Photo: Dave Ress, Daily Press

Two qualities distinguish angels. They exhibit an uncommon kindness and thoughtfulness that is beyond everyday humanity. And, they are mischeviously fun.

While I knew Andrea but three years, from the moment I met her, from the podium of giving a speech on Fairweather Lodge and Hope Family Village to NAMI Hampton Roads/Newport News, no one could have forecast our life together.

Our meeting began with this concluding remark :”I am very excited to start a Fairweather Lodge (a home in a neighborhood, of mutual support and interdependence, for people living serious mental illness) in Virginia. Anywhere in Virginia. Maybe here in Newport News. All we need is a house.”

At the time, three of us were meeting in a place called The Coffee House (Williamsburg). Every Saturday morning at 8 AM. We operated what we called a “Virtual Lodge.” We’d have coffee. Discuss our respective weeks: The good, the bad, the indifferent. Discuss life goals, including seeking employment. Plans for the upcoming week. My role: Part coach, part undiagnosed participant. Our meetings would last no more than one hour.

Immediately after my podium request, a woman raised her hand and said in a soft but confident voice, “I have a house.” And so, we began.

Average people cannot comprehend serious mental illness. What it is. How it changes life. Dreams. Routine. They also miss the beauty and creativity that conjoins the mystery. I, too, was uneducated. Until it was personal and good fortune came my way. Andrea, and others, who lived with a diagnosis, patiently painted a picture of a hidden world.

Andrea shared her NAMI Peer-to-Peer Course Manual with me. She wanted me to understand peers. Also, help me to understand my son, who she would always ask about. She’d make suggestions for creating engagement. The next time she saw me, She’d ask the result and provide further feedback.

She understood what it was like to be a caregiver. She took care of her mother for some years, in their home, as she lived with Alzheimer’s disease until she died. Andrea was both caregiver and peer. In fact, only two weeks ago, she told me that her psychiatrist had asked Andrea to move in with her Mom, a dementia sufferer, to live there and care for her. She speculated that her son, Nathan, who she lived with in the same house she grew up in, might do the same for her.

Naturally thoughtful, Andrea would honor my birthday. Every holiday event. With a card. A small gift. Accompanied by an enveloping, mandatory hug. If you did not hug, she would fake a punch, as if a boxer. Before her illness, she had trained in marshal arts and he informed me that she did have skills to use in case I had to be brought in line. Just kidding, she’d giggle.

Her most recent gifts. A picture frame that featured golf balls and tees. A driver from the 1960s. A leather handkerchief dispenser for my car visor. She thought it looked cool. I will now be ready for Cornovirus.

Since Andrea’s passing, this tribute has come deliberately. Grief interrupts us. Another ingredient needed – attending her funeral service in Portsmouth with a fellow Coffee House lodge member. There, we learned that we were not the only ones she loved. Her unconditional love clearly reciprocated.

Sitting in the pews were family members, churches, lifelong friends, and our community – NAMI, Fairweather Lodge, Hope Family Village. You could feel people stealing glances at one another from their pews, wondering who these strangers were who had come on a Friday at 5 PM to a funeral service amidst rush hour traffic, in a most populated part of coastal Virginia, with few bridges and tunnels. A difficult journey. Some arriving just in time.

Charismatic leaders bear the gift that the people who they are communicating with are the only ones in their lives. These leaders appear to hang on one’s every word. Sincerity and authenticity hug them. Surprise, surprise. Andrea shared her life with others. Many friends. She made each feel unique and special, even the ones she had only known a month. Like her new church, the pastor for the service.

One day, on a par 3, we came close. After seeing the picture,she giggled at the thought she influenced my attempt.

Two days before the service, a single cloud appeared in the sky on my sojourn around the 9-hole course where I play. Andrea would often call me on these jaunts. Through the magic of mobile phone technology and earbuds, we would talk as I played. She’d ask me to send her pictures of where a ball landed on the green. Urge me to make a hole-in-one. (I never have, nor been playing in a group that did.)

On this day, maybe she’d help me. Even better, I watched as this single cloud, alone in a sea of blue, morphed into the image of a snow angel, the kind we’d make as kids at the first snow. It disappeared before I could take a picture. And, I thought … Andrea. I now realized who she was. Could finally write.

Andrea was an angel in this plane and now in Heaven. As I have thought about her life throughout the week, Couldn’t our world do with more angels?

With her life, Andrea showed us that angels exist on earth. Their presence masked by current events, disagreements, traffic, electronics, judgement, the madness of civilization in a perpetual rush.

I never witnessed Andrea in a rush. She was calmly there or would let us know she was stuck in a tunnel on her many trips from Portsmouth to Williamsburg. Steve and I re-lived this potential on Friday’s drive.

Three years ago, when she first asked me if she could join our Coffee House meetings, I was nonplused and concerned. What time would she have to get out of bed to meet us?

Sometimes she would request I call her as the alarm clock. Other times she depended on Chewie, her dog to wake her up.

Andrea was a faithful participant in the Williamsburg Fairweather Lodge. We took our first lodge field trip to see the house she was proposing. Hers. She helped facilitate NAMI Williamsburg Peer Support Group meetings at 7 PM on Tuesday nights. She came to Hope Family Village dinners on Thursday nights.

She suggested, help plan, and participated in Fairweather Lodge events. Bowling, birthdays, dinners, NAMI Walks. It was her idea to celebrate Thanksgiving; she brought and cooked the dinner.

Among the wealthiest people on our planet, no one was more generous, thoughtful, kind and cheerful than Andrea. She is the model for humanity. (Note: I did not say she did not have opinions. She knew her mind.)

Not quite a year into knowing each other, she asked to visit with me at The Coffee House. Just the two of us. She had written her story on paper and wanted to share it with me. She told me, I cannot verbalize it, because I will wind up in the hospital.

We had coffee. She loved an orange drink they had. They sold it at a great price, she said. And it was good! Then, she handed me the paper and asked me to read it later and tell me what I thought. She forewarned me that she was not a good speller, owing to a learning disability.

I would start reading her story and have to stop. Weeks would go by and she would make inquiry. Show good natured disgust when I said, I am not done yet.

Some stories you wish you never knew. You see the story, not a person.

When I finally finished, I told her, I don’t know what to say but thank you. She responded with her characteristic, muffled, A-hm. We did not speak anymore than that, but she asked for it back because wanted to share it with her beloved psychiatrist. Who she once introduced me to at The Coffee House.

Not long after I returned her work, she began talking more openly about that part of her life. She triumphed through difficult times and dates of the year. Memories of tragic events. Reminded me when they were.

Never did she complain, seek sympathy. Never the victim. Again, we experience an angel. In large measure, maybe we know God through each other.

In our virtual lodge, as we developed our house rules and spoke about house philosophy, we realized that our pioneering members had faith in God as a common denominator. At our first diner together, it was Andrea who prevailed in saying the blessing. Surprise, surprise.

When we finally found a house, could see financially how to make it work, Andrea backed out. Up until this point, she was so excited. I was very discouraged. She had been such a prime mover.

Again, not until the service did it sink in that she had lived in the same community her entire life. She delivered papers here at 10. Her doctors were all there. (He heart, both a strength and congenial weakness, failed and led to her passing. She also lived with two forms of cancer. Nothing could hold her down.) Her church. Her childhood, work, and church friends. Her son. Her dog. The home that she offered to us as a prospective lodge. She was where she belonged.

Andrea and I shared quite a life. How she managed to make and keep all these connections can only be explained by her angelic qualities. I will miss her frequent by brief phone calls to check on me. Will glance skyward a little more often, hoping to catch a glimpse of that angel.

What I know, for certain, she has found home, the Big Lodge in the sky. And, if I ever do manage a hole-in-one, I will know that she had something to do with it.

No, it’s not Muzzorgsky. It’s Hope Family Village.

I had thought of entitling this post, 2019: Year in Review. Then, I thought that this year our accomplishments we can show in pictures. And, one photograph, taken by HFV member Jim Thomas, stands out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We journeyed for 5 years to reach this point. In October, we celebrated with a potluck supper, with family and friends, the opening of the first Fairweather Lodge in Virginia. A picture of perseverance, celebration, and, mostly, gratitude.

 

Hope Family Village Board Director and Treasurer received an award for his volunteer service from his employer Exelon Corporation. Hope Family Village received a $5,000 grant to support its Fairweather Lodge program.

 

Board Director Lisa Thomas gave a presentation on Hope Family Village’s concept and development for 25 families on 25 acres at Eastern State.

Post Author: Tom Rideout

During late May/early June 2019, I had the great fortune to represent Hope Family Village by attending the Annual National Cohousing Conference in Portland, Oregon.  I was accompanied by another Williamsburg area volunteer, Shannon Casey, who is a brilliant Green Housing designer/developer and fully committed to caring for fellow humans suffering various neuro-diversity issues.  The conference program was rich in both content and subject matter experts, so for optimal learning leverage, with two exceptions, we gladly split our schedules. 

As my travel schedule worked out, I arrived a bit ahead of the formal conference and was just in time to attend an optional pre-conference “Intensive” Program, spending the afternoon with nationally known architect and cohousing expert Grace Kim to explore Common House Design.  This was a powerful presentation as were the accompanying resource materials I gathered.

The Common House is a distinctive feature of cohousing that separates its “Intentional” communities from most other models. It is a central theme of our plans for Hope Family Village, a community envisioned for approximately 25 households with at least one member suffering from Severe Mental Illness and their family caretakers.  Of note is that the leading recommendation of a College of William & Mary Entrepreneurship Study Team charged with investigating the HFV business plan/model was to design and build the Common House before building the remainder of the village.  The key takeaway from Grace Kim’s session was that special needs neighborhood-housing design requires particularly careful attention.  That message ricocheted throughout the conference in other sessions.

As part of my registration package, I had chosen another pre-conference “Intensive” session the following day.  This was to spend that afternoon touring three cohousing communities in East Portland, across the Willamette River.  In my opinion, the conference organizers did a great job choosing projects that were widely diverse and finding communities that were proud to show themselves to the cohousing world. Having residents at each property make the introductory presentations and lead the small breakout tour groups was also a masterstroke.  For me, it was an intensive and highly useful introduction to the real world of cohousing.  The comments that follow are a combination of my notes and a reworking and occasional direct presentation of information from the respective web sites that my observations confirmed.

The properties visited were:  

a) Columbia Eco-Village http://columbiaecovillage.org 

b) Ankeny Row https://www.greenhammer.com/insight/case-studies/ankeny-row-cohousing/

c) PDX Commons https://www.pdxcommons.com

Columbia Eco-Village

The Community:  This is a multi-generational community in the Cully neighborhood of Northeast Portland.  To me it is more suburban than urban.  From the introductory remarks and the website, its creation appears to have been more developer than resident driven.  Essentially, a 1970’s apartment complex was taken over and merged with some adjacent and actively managed farmland.  Properties were rehabbed and a Common House constructed.  The transaction occurred in 2007; Groundbreaking followed in 2008; and in 2009, the first residents moved in.

There are 37 homes in five buildings at the south end of a 3.73-acre property. Further back on the property is a 1912 farmhouse, where there are guest rooms, a children’s room, meditation room, media room, kitchen, freezers, root cellar and living and dining rooms used for meetings and social events. Nearby is a majestic black walnut tree that is more than 200 years old.  Other shared “common space” on the property includes a dining/common hall with play room, a crafts/sewing room, workshop, laundry room, storage building, and tool shed.  An interesting fact is that the 37 residences require only 3 sets of washers/dryers to handle the community-washing load.  This leaves room in the individual living units for other amenities.

I was impressed by the village’s commitment to gardening.  Food is grown in two large gardens and used for scheduled and optional community meals in the Common House. It was reported that the cost of their fabulous dinners is $5/person. The residents harvest a substantial bounty from fruit and nut trees as well as rows of grapes, blackberries, raspberries and more. Members may also have an individual or shared garden plot and many also use their green thumbs beautifying the courtyard areas in front of their homes.

Cohousing

At this stage of my report, it is useful to briefly reintroduce cohousing.  It came to this country from Denmark in the mid-1980s.   At the conference we learned there are more than 175 established and forming cohousing communities in the U.S., and it is clear there is a lot of activity in the Portland area.

Common cohousing features include the following:

• Communities planned and run by residents who make decisions together.
• A balance of common areas and private housing, designed to encourage social interaction while respecting privacy.
• Shared meals available in a “common house” 3 to 5 times a week, plus other shared activities based on the interests of community members.
• Members living in fully equipped house or apartments, choosing to share a range of resources for environmental and economic reasons.
• Members are often encouraged/required to spend allotted numbers of hours in given periods with volunteer activities that promote community operations, values, etc.

Stated features at Columbia Eco-Village are: child-friendly, elder-friendly, sociable living; cooperative interaction; moderate level of participation; and a chance to make long-term personal connections with neighbors who share similar values.

Governance

Cohousing communities are often managed by the owner/residents in a manner similar to condominium associations around the country.  This is often through having a Board of Directors elected by the residents/owners govern and implement activities through its Bylaws authority and a series of committees.

Columbia Eco-Village was proud to announce they used a system adapted from Europe called Sociocracy.  It places a huge incentive on developing community consensus.   If one can imagine a Center Circle surrounded by four other circles and all of them linked to the Center Circle, you can visualize the model.

Typically, the four circles are responsible for the following: Land, Facilities, Social Activities and Administration.  The concept is basically a de-centralized governance system, where experts are assigned to each of the circles and have a good degree of autonomy in their domain based on their expertise and experience.  And because it is decentralized, it appears to be more efficient than traditional centrally controlled models.  

Wikipedia has an excellent introductory discussion of the concept.  A publication entitled Many Voices One Song written by Ted J. Rau and Jerry Koch-Gonzalez offers an excellent introduction to the subject.  I, for one, am intrigued with the Sociocracy concept and will be researching it further as a potential system of governance that could produce high participation and rock solid consensus building with the future Hope Family Village.

Ankeny Row

In a stark contrast with Columbia Eco-Village, Ankeny Row represents a superb example of a deeper urban project.  It is well located in the historic Buckman neighborhood near bus routes and a designated bicycle route, thus offering the option of automobile free living.

Two families who had become fast friends led the project.  They were driven by an ancient challenge from Michelangelo Buonarroti: “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving out mark.”

 Built on a footprint of 12,600 square feet (a ¼ acre brownfield lot), Ankeny Row consists of 7 units – 6 for residences and 1 for a Common House, built around a shared courtyard with access through a pronounced pedestrian entrance.  This keeps resident eyes focused on an available streetscape that emphasizes the projects extreme walkability.

The units are contemporary in their architecture with open floor plans that center activity around the kitchen and dining areas.  All units have first floor master suites that permit total living there, if ever required.

Most impressive is the highly insulated Passive House airtight envelope on the buildings that, it is claimed, reduces energy demand by over 90% when compared with conventional construction.  Additional benefits include light filled interiors, excellent indoor air quality through a constant supply of fresh, filtered air, thermal comfort and acoustic isolation from the sound of urban bustle. A solar photoelectric roof top panel that promises Net Zero energy conservation further enhances the project.  

The two families serving as project developers engaged Green Hammer to help create a building with minimal environmental impact, reduced operating costs and long-term prospects for robust economic value.  In 2016, 5 residential units and the common house produced 18% more energy than was consumed in overall community operations.

During the tour we were introduced to the high technical quality of the installed equipment and the finest of finishes that were used in the construction of these units.  This a very high-end project in terms of value versus median housing costs in the Portland area.  In a book they wrote about the project, the developers make the case that their personal involvement substantially reduced the imbedded project costs for all of the owners.  Rather than charge a developer fee, they contributed their sweat equity to their membership.  This is certainly a powerful project development and marketing idea to keep in mind when starting a cohousing effort.

The Common House was built with top noise containment materials on both the walls and floor. Wonderful art on the walls enhances resident social cohesion.  The space allows for group activities, yoga for instance, other group and community activities and hosted dinners (up to 24 have been served at one sitting).  And the Courtyard Garden and unit decks feature great views, urban gardening and both formal and informal connectivity on a daily basis.  Convenient bike parking emphasizes biking versus visitor driving to the site.

All in all, Ankeny Row is a jewel of a project, one decidedly oriented to well to do seniors who could easily self-fund construction and final living unit acquisition with the existing equity and ultimate sale of their residences.

PDX Commons

Our final stop was at PDX Commons.  It is intentionally designated as a Senior Cohousing Community.  At least one person age 55 or older must live in at least 80 percent of the units under Federal Hair Housing Law. They may have children or younger adults living with them. Age restrictions do not apply on the remaining 20 percent of the units.  

The owners are acutely aware of the impact that the passage of time will take on its residents/owners and the need to refresh its membership over time.  They are about to celebrate their second anniversary.  A telling sign of the power of their design, development and social plan is that there is a current waiting list of 50 families seeking a home in the complex.