I’ve heard of community service around senior citizens, and providing company to nursing home patients or services to frail seniors living on their own.  This except, however. is from a NYTimes article in the health section on “age appropriate” senior companions, just one of the many ways seniors and baby boomers are finding to continue to have a social network, and to stay in their homes later in life…

On Mondays, Mr. Antsy visits with a woman living in his subsidized senior apartment building; she uses an oxygen tank and rarely goes out, so she appreciates having company.

On Wednesdays, he spends a few hours with a man who has Parkinson’s disease, which provides a break for the man’s caregiving wife. “It gives her time to go out with her sister and get her hair done, have lunch, do some shopping,” Mr. Antsy explained.

No clients on Thursday, but “that’s fine and dandy, to have a day off.” Mr. Antsy, who volunteers about 20 hours a week with the Senior Companions program at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo, can use a break himself now and then. He’s 78.

About 13,600 such Senior Companions participants — all older adults themselves — served nearly 61,000 clients last year. The volunteers must be at least 55, but more than 40 percent are, like Mr. Antsy, over 75.

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IKEA, with its sleek, smart, and affordable designs, has invaded our living rooms and our country.  The Swedish company selling $2.50 meatballs along with bedroom sets has certainly acquired a loyal following.  But is it loyal enough to fill in an entire town, if IKEA builds it?  It appears IKEA is proposing to build an entire neighborhood in East London, built around ideas of social interaction and reduced automobile use.  Take a look!

Have you ever thought about “volunteering” and how de-valued it is in our current system?  We, as a globe, increasingly use money as our only reward system – and the majority of productive acts we do for someone else either earns us money or is considered “volunteering”.  Very few people engage regularly in a system that rewards them in other, perhaps more humane, ways.  There needs to be something, whether social approval or the security of reciprocation that encourages people to give to their community.  Cohousing, I believe, is one system that does value human labor, or better put “human caring”, in a way outside the capitalist monetary system.  I think there are a few reasons why cohousing is effective at this, which I will explore later in a later post, but first: how I started thinking about this.

A couple of months ago I was introduced to the Beacon Hill Village – a not for profit organization based in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston.  The “village” is an organization set up to provide services from within the community to the community.  It heavily supports aging in place, offering human labor for services as varied as driving an elderly neighbor to the doctor or hiring a handyman.  It also checks out and recommends good business in the area, sometimes at a special discount.  It is membership based and not only practical in getting many more services to residents. but also increases the relationships, human contact, and social capital in the neighborhood.

The Beacon Hill Village sparked a series of these villages all around the country – over 60 of them now.  They are linked virtually through the Village-to-Village Network.  These Villages can be seen as variations on Time Banking, and idea that is slightly broader but similar in spirit.  Time banking is a practice of valuing human labor as a currency with the literal idea of putting your “time” spent working in the community into a bank, and taking out someone else’s time later, when you need it.   Some entire cities, such as Ithaca NY, have embraced the idea fully – even offering IthacaHours as a legitimate form of payment in some area businesses.  You volunteer and in exchange get either goods, services, or the security of services later on.  It is such a cool idea!!

Here is a recent article from the New York Times New Old Age Blog on one such network:  A Community Time Bank

I love this idea for several reasons:

• It works within our system rather than against it, which means it can function and even flourish NOW
• It gives value to caring.  It is capitalism in it’s best, softest possible form.
• It supports aging in place
• It increases social capital and relationships in a neighborhood
• It helps freelance, unemployed, or self-employed folks who are good citizens find loyal work
• It keeps money in the community
• It provides human contact, especially to the elderly, that is so important in maintaining mental health

Across the country, cities are searching for a solution to a nation-wide urban housing crisis.  Many major cities, both DC, Boston, New York, even Vancouver and other international cities – are lacking affordable housing options for singles, young professionals, and empty nesters.  Cities are struggling to retain talented young people and looking for innovative solutions to draw and keep innovators, entrepreneurs, etc in the city center.  Boston’s Mayor Menino recently reduced the minimum rentable unit to 375 square feet from 425, at the same time calling for developers to meet this need for smaller, affordable housing.

The cool part, though, is some of these solutions trade private space for communal space, providing shared work spaces, kitchens, and living rooms.  In New York, these types of buildings are taking up some old SRO’s (Single Room Occupancies, usually provided through social services) and were the topic of a recent conference, organized by the Citizens Housing and Planning Council.  In Vancouver they are “microlofts”, similarly in a renovated SRO in the Gastown district.  These units are still not renting cheaply ($800-$1500 in Boston, NYC, and Vancouver) – but they ARE meeting a need for cheapER housing that fosters a sense of community among demographics often lacking this opportunity.

Cohousing is still cooler, but for those without resources to buy and requiring little private space, these are pretty nifty little spaces!

For further reading:

Article on New York SRO conversion and innovative housing:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/17/arts/design/jonathan-kirschenfeld-reimagines-the-sro-in-the-bronx.html?scp=3&sq=sro&st=cse

Boston, Mayor Menino Calls for Mico-Units:  http://bostonglobe.com/business/2011/12/13/menino-pushes-micro-units-lure-young-waterfront/Qye00OdXNMV3Dl5NESi50K/story.html#share-nav

Vancouver Living Small in Gastown:  http://www.theprovince.com/news/Living+small+West+Hastings/5881000/story.html

Have you visited Sperling’s “Best Places” website?  (www.bestplaces.net)  If not, check it out.  Its got loads of cool categories, ranking cities in terms of greenness, best places to live, most difficult to navigate, etc.  Check out your closest city and see how it stacks up.  Here is how DC tallied:

Ranked #1 Best Cities for Teleworking – Extra Large Metro Areas
Ranked #2 Healthiest Cities
Ranked #2 Most Difficult Cities to Navigate
Ranked #3 Most Irritation Prone Cities
Ranked #3 America’s Riskiest Online Cities
Ranked #4 Best Airports to Make a Connection
Ranked #4 The Most (and Least) Gender Imbalanced Cities
Ranked #5 2005 High Gas Prices
Ranked #5 Sleep in the City Study Examines Relationship Between Sleep and Happiness
Ranked #5 Most Secure Places to Live 2011 (Large Metros)
Ranked #6 America’s Least Manly Cities
Ranked #7 Cities on the Edge of Greatness
Ranked #9 Most Secure Places to Live in the U.S. (Large Metro Areas)
Ranked #9 Second Annual “America’s Manliest Cities” Rankings
Ranked #9 America’s Most Playful Cities

If you play around much on the site, beware of the criteria used to rank them.  For example “on the Edge of Greatness” is great for men to live in and includes such random measures as music, hometown sports, and interest in BMX games.  Still, many of them are legitimately useful!

If you’re from the DC area, do you agree with these rankings?

Examples of needing community are abound… and no longer so taboo to speak about!   “Villages”, networks to support adults aging in place, are another very cool example of how people are coming together to create “community” that used to exist naturally.  Villages, as used here, are networks of support services that provide members, for an annual fee, with amenities such as transportation, shopping help, and access to approved and discounted services including yard work, book-keeping, etc.  They also can create caring social networks among adults in the same area.

The movement started in Boston in 1991, in Beacon Hill, but are now spreading around the country.  Groups like the Village to Village Network exist to facilitate the creation of these networks.  It’s a pretty cool idea, one that validates the country’s (and baby boomers’ in particular) need for community support.

Read a full article on these networks on AARP here:  http://www.aarp.org/home-garden/livable-communities/info-04-2011/villages-real-social-network.html

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Rutledge, Missouri is offering a 5-week Ecovillage Education course.  This course is intensive and imersive, providing an in depth look at what exactly an ecovillage is and how it functions – and training you in such a way of life.  Their next course will be this coming summer, from June 29th – Aug 5th.  Visit their FAQ Page for more information!

“Ecovillage Education is a 5-week trans-disciplinary, experiential program set within one of the US’ leading ecovillages. Develop your capacity for creating or enhancing communities and projects using social,economic and ecological sustainability lessons learned in the worlds’ most sustainable communities.”

If you want to make a direct contribution to the effort to educate folks on ecovillages and sustainability, the group has a fundraising effort right now through Indie Gogo.  Click here and show some support and intentional community solidarity!

Lake Chapala Cohousing Rancho La Salud Village

If you didn’t get a chance to explore the website of this cool project in Mexico, here is their website again:  http://rancholasaludvillage.com/

Today, as promised, we are featuring an interview with Rick Colishaw, one of the founders of this Rancho La Salud Village.  This new community is currently in the forming stages and located right near Lake Chapala.  It is primarily a community for retired American expats with extensive convenience and health services provided, but it is open to everyone.  Read below or browse their website to learn more!

 What is your (and the owner, Jaime Navarro’s) background?

Architect, specialist in passive solar and energy efficiency for 15 years, founder of built-green program in Colorado, and architect for cohousing project in Colorado Springs.

“Rick Cowlishaw has been an architect in Colorado and several other states.  He specialized in energy efficient and passive solar homes.  Rick later worked for the State of Colorado in the Colorado Office of Energy Conservation where he headed up the residential section.  Cowlishaw created the Colorado Green Program for the state.  This was adopted by the Denver Homebuilders Association as the Built-Green Program and spread to other areas of the state.  Later the National Homebuilders Association adopted the Green Program which led to 38 states in the US adopting of similar green programs.  Since that time he has worked as a design consultant in a new type of housing called Cohousing.  He has lived in Cohousing for 14 years.  Rick brings to Rancho La Salud Village his knowledge of passive solar architecture, green building, self-sufficiency and building community.

Jaime Navarro is Rancho La Salud’s owner and developer.  He specialized in organic agriculture, sustainable living systems, family business management and coaching.  A Lakeside resident, business entrepreneur and neo-farmer since 2008, he actively participates in the Lake Chapala Green Group and has committed his life to bringing back healthy organic foods, intelligent sustainable cohousing and multiversity education and coaching, for the integral evolution of human consciousness.  He lived, studied, and worked in the US for 15 years as a research fellow and lecturer at UCLA and The Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, CA.  He later returned to Mexico and served as Dean for the ITESM (Technologico de Monterrey) Graduate School of Business at Guadalajara and lectured extensively at US, Canadian, and Mexican universities before settling at Rancho La Salud Village.  Jaime and Sara are its founders and first dwellers.

Why Cohousing in Mexico?

I retired to Ajijic Mexico, met the developer and decided to assist with Rancho La Salud Village.  It is a dream project for me in that it includes many of the elements I have learned over the years, but never been able to include in one project.  These are cohousing, passive solar heating and cooling, passive hot water heating, electrical generation, water harvesting, green construction, living healthy life-long learning, and designing for aging-in-place.

Why the Retail Shops?  (Primarily for convenience of residents?  To bring in income? Do you think the retail shops will have enough customer base to survive?)

The retail shops are fairly common here along the highway and in front of a gated community.  They seem to rent quite well over time.  We have room for just 3 or 4 small shops, so it is not a large economic risk.

The retail shops in our case will provide services to the residents and are integrated into the community.  One side faces the highway with parking, the other faces into the community.

One shop will sell organic produce, some grown by the residents and some grown commercially.  We have an acre under cover with a commercial organic greenhouse across the street.  The homeowners will have access to use a small portion of the greenhouse and for outdoor farming.  We will be the only totally organic store in the area, and expats love organic produce here.  We hope to have residents in the community that enjoy making  jellies, jams, pies, breads, and flavored oils and vinegar.  In the same shop can be displayed for sale art work done by the community members.  This includes oils, watercolors, pottery, and jewelry.  Yes, extra income, but for the enjoyment of it.

There are four other gated complexes within walking distance from which to draw clients.  The shop owners can bring the product to them by carrying their product in the back of trucks directly to these and other communities.  In our community they can walk door to door and the residents can walk down to the shops for what is available.  Yes, for the convenience.

There is another reason.  We plan to intentionally create jobs for the Mexicans, perhaps even start ownership of a business with micro-loans.

A second shop will be a laundry, picked up and delivered for each residence.  Part of this service includes ironing.  The laundry draws business from the other surrounding communities.  This should do quite well economically.  Just imagine setting your laundry out, then etting it back ironed on hangers two days later.  This is a convenience.

A third shop will be for medical.  A doctor will visit once a week and go house to house by prior arrangement.  There will be a visiting nurse 3 times a week.  This might include a small pharmacy.  This would be part of a wellness center for alternate ways of maintaining health.

You can see how these inter-relate to each other and the community.  They also create jobs.

The common house will have an entry, mailboxes, small living room, large dining room, TV area, large kitchen, combo men and women restroom, two bedrooms with baths, and a small gym.  There will be a patio for outside dining for 30 people.

What kind of market analysis did you do before making this decision?

We have no formal analysis.  We do have a copy of an analysis that shows a need for assisted living that covers some of the same issues.  We did a informal focus group to see if we are on the right track.  I have a fair exposure to the expat market through the Lake Chapala Society, an expat group of over 3,000 members.  There are probably 30,000 expats along a 20 mile strip here.  And then there are the 10,000 US baby boomers turning 65 each day.

US and Canadian expats have moved here and more move here every day.  I have met expats from Sweden, Spain, Germany, and England.  There are compelling reasons to move to the north shore of Ajijic, among them lovely 60 degree to 80 degree weather year round, great natural beauty of a 14 mile wide and 50 mile long lake surrounded by high mountains, great eating places, wonderful interesting people, a great number of things to do and a total cost about one-half of the US.

We are doing a gated community much like others here with the addition of Cohousing.  These gated communities have been successful.  We consider it low risk because of the need of expats who have left their friends, children and grand children back home.  They have a need for “living-in-community” and of extended family which cohousing offers.  Remember, we need only 29 people who want to buy into this project.

Yes, at least from the “creating community” non-physical part of the Village.  We have developed the building layout on the site based on Cohousing principles and several sample home plans.  Part of the Cohousing model is to have early investor/residents, and we offer this.  The early investor will purchase a lot at a large discount and we will use the funds from the first 7 investors to work with consultants and to build the infrastructure.  We can begin construction of the homes at any time, as these homes are very close to “stand-alone” and can be built separately one at a time.

The early investors have several advantages.  They get their pick of the lots.  They get a large discount.  They get to work on their community – how it is governed, the regulations, and how they will work with each other.  They get to review the plans.  They get to know their neighbors sooner.

We hope to complete the Village in four years.  This much depends on the residents.

The major market will be retired expats from 60 to 80 years old.  We would like it to be as international as possible.  The developer is a Mexican National, and we would certainly welcome Mexicans.  The issue is cash.  Loans are very difficult to get here, and more people buy for cash.

Our approach is letting people choose this type of housing.  It will be self-selecting.  People will choose this because they see the value and want this type of community.  It will lean more toward Senior Cohousing with the extra features.  We believe that cohousing with the extras we offer in a beautiful location will sell itself.  We just need to get our story told.

How is this community different (other than you’ve already answered!) than conventional US cohousing communities?  

Very few cohousing communities are off the grid.  We aren’t either (we still tie into the electric grid, but have zero electrical bills) the rest of the project is off the grid.  We will emphasize living healthy, have life-long learning and be able to age-in-place.  We will have much of the physical work done by Mexicans although residents can do as much work as they like.

I heard much of the work will be already completed when residents move in, making it very desirable to retired folks. Can you comment on that also?

Labor here is more affordable which will allow for more services done by local Mexicans.  I believe Mexicans are very hard working and are delighted with the jobs we bring.  For instance, I imagine the Village will employ 10 to 15 people.  As we age, we can do less physical jobs but we can certainly supervise. Not having to do the physical jobs allows us to have more time to give back. We can give back to the community and we can give back to local charities.

YES! Cohousing is spreading – to some of the coolest corners of Earth!

You get 5 points (which really means just our awe and appreciation!) if you can identify the location of these photos before the next post, explaining what and where this is – and why there is cohousing here!

Posted by: Rebecca