Cohousing: Joining Affordable, Sustainable and Collaboratively-Governed, Single Family Neighborhoods

Abstract

For many Americans purchasing a home in a conventional single-family subdivision is and will remain impossible. Credit challenges facing this population mandate rethinking why, where and how we build, and occupy, dwellings and their neighborhoods, and understanding how our choices affect sustainable and supportive communities. If local government officials, planning and design professionals and construction industry leaders fail to respond, sensibly and swiftly, to declining renewable resources and downward-spiraling personal net worth, social and ecological equilibrium will be mightily disrupted. This essay urges new behaviors challenging urban planning, development and neighborhood governance conventions. It affords one example of new strategies, conjoining themes of affordability, sustainability, safety and rational neighborhood governance, in devising a housing market for a changed dwelling-owner class.

Keywords: affordability, housing, sustainable, real property, shipping containers, cohousing, communities, community governance, homeowners association, alternative housing, ISBU

JEL Classification: H81, K11, K23, Q15, Q32, R14, R21, R31, R52