Kids with wrinkles

As they age gracefully, these Sonoma County adults are exploring how to avoid isolation, to enhance their lives and to build community. Topics include housing, cohousing, health, share-the-care and other age-defying high-wire acts.

Page maintained by Roger Karraker

8 paths to community & cohousing

In her book “Creating a Life Together” Diana Leafe Christian lists 6 different variations of cohousing. I’ve added a couple of my own. So here goes, roughly in the order from from formal to informal, from those requiring lots of planning to less-organized ad hoc solutions. All are valid for different situations: different strokes for different folks.

Buy virgin country land (aka “greenfield”) and creating a community from scratch. Example: Pleasant Hill Cohousing, Pleasant Hill; Frog Song, Cotati; Two-Acre Wood, Sebastopol (lots more photos here).
Buy a rural camp or conference center and converting it to cohousing. Example: ???
Retrofit a commercial building into a cohousing community. Example: Doyle Street Cohousing, Emeryville.
Buy a couple of nearby homes to start; then buy adjacent properties and tear down walls; create a common house. Example: Temescal Creek Cohousing, Oakland. Phone or email Karen Hester for detailed info.
Buy urban land, retrofit it, then add to it by tearing down the fences to adjacent parcels. Example: Berkeley Cohousing
Buy an existing apartment house and convert it to condominium cohousing. Example: ???
Forget a commons; form a member association of people in a geographic area and provide shared services. Example: Beacon Hill Village (also see article, Feb. 5, 2008, below).
Form a Share-the-Care association, not just for the benefit of one person, but for many. Example: Share the Care

Raines Cohen's booklist: "Aging In Community - Elder Cohousing" My friend Raines Cohen, a member of the Berkeley Cohousing community and organizer of the East Bay Cohousing Meetup group, has compiled this list of six titles, the two by Durrett and Christian and four others. Check ‘em out. I’ve read the original “Cohousing” by McCamant and the ScottHanson “Cohousing Handbook.” Both are fine.

Buy this book: "Creating a Life Together" by Diana Leafe Christian

IHere’s another book we need to read. Durrett’s book tends to concentrate on “what” to do — the concrete steps in the process. Christian’s book “Creating a Life together”is more about process and how to move forward. The books are complementary. Again, we need several copies, so please buy one. When it comes write your name it and call or email Judi Marley (Santa Rosa) or Helen Baum (Sebastopol), our librarians, and tell them when you will finish reading it. Helen and Judi will arrange for others to borrow the book and keep them in circulation.

Feb
5th

Tue

Aging at Home: For a Lucky Few, a Wish Come True

By JANE GROSS
Published: February 9, 2006

BOSTON

ALONE in his row house on Beacon Hill, with four precipitous flights of stairs and icy cobblestones outside the front door, John Sears, 75, still managed to look after himself after he was hit by a taxicab and left with a broken knee.

That is because Mr. Sears was one phone call away from everything he needed to remain in his home, the goal of more than 80 percent of the nation’s elderly as they confront advancing age, according to consistent polls.

Mr. Sears required both practical assistance and peace of mind: Transportation to and from the hospital. An advocate with him at medical appointments. Home-delivered meals from favorite restaurants. Someone at his side as he hobbled to the bank and the barber. Someone else to install grab bars in his bathroom. A way to summon help in an emergency. People to look in on him.

All these services were organized for Mr. Sears by Beacon Hill Village, an innovative nonprofit organization created by and for local residents determined to grow old in familiar surroundings, and to make that possible for others. Community-based models for aging in place designed by the people who use them are the wave of the future, experts say, an alternative to nursing homes and assisted living centers run by large service providers.

[more]

— Aging at Home: For a Lucky Few, a Wish Come True - New York Times

Buy this book: "Senior Cohousing" by Charles Durrett

In the past few weeks I’ve read several books about cohousing. “Senior Cohousing: A community approach to independent living” by Charles Durrett, published in 2005, is the most relevant. We need several copies — a half-dozen at least — in constant circulation. So please, order a copy today. When it comes write your name it and call or email Judi Marley (Santa Rosa) or Helen Baum (Sebastopol), our librarians, and tell them when you will finish reading it. Helen and Judi will arrange for others to borrow the book and keep them in circulation.