Subject: Cooperative Housing

From: [email-masked] (Emsegal)
Date: 15 Dec 1994 10:35:27 -0500

I work in the area of cooperative housing and would be glad to share
information with anyone who is interested.

Housing cooperatives are not group houses and they are not necessarily
cohousing. In cooperatives, residents form a corporation that owns a
development. In return for owning share in the co-op, residents get a long
term lease on the development. (People in NYC know this but most of the
rest of the country does not)

Housing cooperatives have many advantages:  
         1) You can create community to the extent that you wish.
         2) Housing co-ops are eligible for various government subsidies.
In many cases, you can buy shares for 1,000 or less and have a home of
your own for the rest of your life.
          3) You have control over your unit as you would in a condominium
          4) In the type that I am interested in, limited equity co-ops,
you do not need to qualify for a mortgage.
         5) You have control (within Fair Housing guidelines) over who
moves in so you can maintain the kind of community you want.

In short, limited equity co-ops are affordable and resident-controlled.
Most cohousers are not interested in co-ops because the issue of
affordability is not a big priority -- but I wonder what will happen to
these developments in the future when they can't control who moves in (as
they could if they did a co-op).

Anyone interested in this?