Quality of life as we age is optimal when we are part of a community of friends. To promote community living, a new concept in housing for seniors is sweeping the country. It’s called Cohousing, a word derived from collaborative cooperative housing.
Oakcreek Community in Stillwater, Oklahoma
Imagine a small neighborhood village of 25 to 30 individually owned homes clustered around a large shared “common house” with gardens and walking trails. These communities are planned, owned and managed by their owners and are designed to foster strong neighborly ties among residents.
Households have independent incomes and private lives, but neighbors plan and manage community activities featuring regularly scheduled shared meals and workdays as well as interest groups, group trips, and simply having fun being together.
Silver Sage in Boulder, Colorado
A cohousing community is different from corporate-built senior living residences in that the residents participate from the start by gathering together, finding and purchasing land, hiring professionals to help design the site and their homes, procuring a construction loan, building and moving in. It is self-governed and designed to maximize resident interaction with one another.
The individual homes take whatever form the residents decide at the earliest stages of planning; all aspects chosen exclusively by the homeowners and typically conforming to the larger neighborhood or zone. They also are one-level homes, built with such amenities for aging as low/no thresholds, wider doorways, grab bars, etc.
Silver Sage in Boulder, Colorado
You own your individual house, but you agree on community rules, interacting with a balance between privacy and community. Do you have to eat every meal with them? No, you don’t. If you’re more introvert than extrovert, you can still be comfortable as you respect each other’s differences.
This idea of collaborative/cooperative housing originated in Denmark in the 1960s. Most communities begin as a study group from five to 20 interested individuals. There are over 160 cohousing communities thriving in the United States with 200 more under construction.
Silver Sage in Boulder, Colorado
Most were started as multigenerational neighborhoods where the focus is on raising children. As residents aged, the need for senior neighborhoods rose as well. The Senior Cohousing Handbook: a Community Approach to Independent Living by Charles Durrett, 2009, gives a thorough overview with examples of different communities and links to additional resources.
In the words of Durrett, an architect specializing in cohousing: “Imagine a living arrangement where community is a way of life…residents who actively cooperate…to re-create an old-fashioned neighborhood that supports friendly cooperation, socialization and mutual support.”
Silver Sage in Boulder, Colorado
About the author: Kayelily Middleton and her husband have formed Raleigh Cohousing (raleigh-cohousing.com), the first cohousing community in Wake County.