?Cohousing itself is an intentional awareness and saying, the world isn?t working the way it should... and we?ve got to start modeling a different way of being with each other? COVID-19 is already starting to pull at the edges of society, throwing into sharp relief the limits of stringent individualism?long a cornerstone of American culture. The mutual aid groups being organized over Google docs, WhatsApp groups, and slips of paper left in mailboxes point to the capacity for residents in single-family-housing neighborhoods or apartment buildings to rapidly respond to each other?s needs. But it?s also an indictment, perhaps, of all the ways that we didn?t know each other, and of the isolated and isolating character of modern living.
For Marianne Dickinson, a design development consultant and affordable housing advocate in her 70s who lives in a New Mexico cohousing community largely composed of other seniors, the particular stressors of the novel coronavirus, such as resource hoarding and social isolation, have been defrayed by her unique housing situation. While each cohousing community has different features or amenities, chosen by the community members?a communal bike shed, a vegetable garden?they are generally composed of closely clustered private homes, along with a central common house that is a space shared among the residents. The concept is a Danish import, but there are more than 160 communities scattered across the country, and another 140 in the works. Ma...