North Oakland Cohousing

Events

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I’m not crazy about living in an apartment building. Why do you think that it’ll make good cohousing?

A: Let’s start with practical reasons. The high density arrangement we’re proposing is the new trend in urban development in general and cohousing in particular. It saves lots of resources, including money for its members. Simply put, it’s one of the only ways to get reasonably priced cohousing in the Bay Area. Urban apartment living can be cozy, comfortable, aesthetically pleasing and vibrantly communal. One of our founders grew up in an apartment neighborhood in Chicago, which she remembers with great fondness and credits with inspiring her to live communally. Another spent her childhood in an apartment building in St. Petersburg, Russia, where the interlocking courtyards and walkable neighborhoods provided lots of spaces for rest, play, and relationships with neighbors.

Q: I can’t see how my household would fit into a two-bedroom apartment. What are my options?

A: Many cohousers eventually make the pleasant discovery that they’re able to live happily in a smaller space than they thought, because of the extensive common facilities. However, if you need more than a two-bedroom apartment, you can buy enough shares for two apartments and combine the units, or go in with another family on an extra unit and split the third apartment between you. At first, combining the units will mean cutting a door in one of the walls to join either the living rooms, or the kitchens of the apartments, which will result in a decent floor plan – not an optimal design, but quite livable. After a few years, we expect to be able to get a variance from the city to formally combine units, for people who want to do a more extensive remodel.

Q: How do I claim one of these units?

A: You have to become an equity member of our group, which will also make you a member of North Oakland Cohousing LLC – the business entity through which we plan to buy the building. Being an equity member means a unit is reserved for you.

Q: So, how do I become a member? Do I have to be approved by the group?

A: Becoming a member is a process that takes several stages and, usually, at least eight weeks. First you’ll need to familiarize yourself with cohousing in general and our group in particular. We have some reading to help you do this. After you’re ready, your household can become an associate. Associates pay a quarterly fee of $250 to the group and participate in most of the ways that equity members do, but don’t have a unit reserved for them and can’t make decisions that require consensus. This is a way for you and the group to evaluate each other without making too much of a commitment. After at least six weeks as an associate and a bit more reading, you can choose to become an equity member.

Q: If I join now, how soon can I move in?

A: Assuming we secure the building on 8th Ave., the first few households can expect to move in within the year. The building has a high turnover rate, and no very long-term tenants. Between naturally-occurring vacancies, and the fact that some of our senior members are flexible and likely to allow junior members to go ahead of them if they need a place (so they don’t have to move twice) we don’t anticipate a problem with people waiting and not being able to move in. We will have around ten households when we buy, so there will be room for some of the tenants to stay a few years, without keeping members from moving in, and room for existing tenants to join us if they choose.

Q: What will it be like for the first people who move in?

A: It will probably be a like living in a conventional apartment building with a bit of cohousing thrown in. We expect to claim one of the first available units for our common house and to start having meetings and some dinners there, even when only one or two cohousers are living on site. We’ll also be having work days – tearing out the concrete in the courtyard for a garden, working on the common house, and transforming the space into cohousing bit by bit.

Q: What will you do about current renters who don’t want to move out?

A: We hope that many current renters will move either through natural attrition or because the community around them is changing into cohousing, which they’re not interested in. In some situations, we may offer renters financial incentives to move out. Renters who are interested in cohousing will have a chance to join the community, under the same terms as other members. We may also create an auxiliary member option for renters who don’t have the money to join and friends who don’t live in the building but want a tighter link to the community. The auxiliary membership might involve a monthly fee the household pays for access to the common house, inclusion in the common meal rotation, etc.

Q: What’s the condition of the units now?

A: Based on what we’ve seen, the units are in good condition – very clean in a no frills kind of way. Most kitchens and bathrooms have been remodeled recently.

Q: What will we be able to do to individual units?

A: Our situation will be different from condominium cohousing in that we'll be renting our homes from the LLC. So the community will be the landlord, and if someone moves out, we’ll have to get their apartment ready for the next person. Because of this, we'll have to think about what people and their pets do to the units in ways that are more similar to coops than condominium cohousing communities. We plan to have a committee that will review people's plans, to make sure they don't change their units in ways that will end up costing the community money or cause problems for neighbors. Anyone will be able to serve on this committee. We haven't worked out the details of the policies yet, but, in a member-managed community, these things tend to be quite relaxed and commonsensical. For example, if you paint your apartment a particularly dark color, you might have to pay a deposit for the cost of extra coats of paint, in case you move out and the walls are still deep purple. If you live in an upstairs unit and want to replace your carpet with hardwood, the committee might say ”yes” for the living room, and ”no” for the bedrooms, since the bedrooms would be over someone else's sleeping area.

Q: What will you do to reduce the noise level in the apartment building?

A: The community’s cash flow situation will free up after five years, when we pay off our second mortgages. At that point, we anticipate that we’ll start working on noise insulation, if noise has been a problem. Until then, it will probably be up to individual households to be considerate with one another and/or to improve the sound insulation in their apartments, if noise is still a problem for them. The community will support them by creating good neighbor policies that take noise into account and by helping neighbors work out negotiations, if needed.

Q: I noticed that there are only 11 parking spaces, but you expect 17 cohousing units. How will the parking work? Will there be a charge for parking?

A: We’re still discussing this. Currently, the parking is on a first come first serve basis. We might keep it that way, or not, depending on the community’s preferences. We also received a suggestion to convert one of the spaces to a car share space. We’ll explore this option too.

Q: Are all your decisions made by consensus?

A: No. Consensus process isn’t appropriate for all decisions. Many routine decisions are simply made by the people doing the work. Other decisions are more effectively made by a small committee. We’re still working out the finer points of when consensus process should be used. We also have a voting backup to protect us against a possible (rare) situation when the group can’t find a way to move forward with consensus process.

Q: I read that you require your members to participate in cohousing activities at least 15 hours a month for every adult in the household. What if we don’t have time to do that?

A: Participation by our members is very important for us to get the work done–creating cohousing takes a lot of work! It’s also important for community cohesion. If you can’t manage 15 hours, though, you can pay $15 per hour to offset the reduced participation hours. Household members can also take on some of each other’s hours.

After move-in our required participation hours will probably eventually change to nine or ten hours a month. At that point we might decide to charge households a participation fee up front and then refund them all or part of the money at the end of the month based on how much they’ve participated.

Q: These are tough economic times. Have you thought about using the resources of the community to support members who are having financial hardship?

A: Conversations about mutual support in general and financial assistance in particular lead us to the heart of some important underlying questions about the nature of cohousing and community. Is a cohousing community more like a neighborhood or more like a family? What kind of contracts are we making with one another? What’s fair to the person needing help and to the other community members? How can we build a healthy community and secure a solid financial future, not only for one another but for the project as a whole? These are ongoing discussions.

At the moment we have no plans for a formal hardship assistance program, but experience has shown that cohousers often develop informal networks within their communities and are often willing to help one another in times of need.

Q: What accommodations will you have for families with kids?

A: We very much want children in our community, and we put a high value on making it kid-friendly. In addition to the play areas we plan to create in our common space, the 8th Ave. building is close to several parks, including Clinton Square, two and a half blocks away, and the large San Antonio Park seven blocks away. The local elementary schools—Loomis Basin Charter School and Franklin Elementary—have both received nine out of ten ratings from a parent rating site (GreatSchools.org).

We provide child care at our general meetings and, because we know that raising children is time-consuming, members with kids under age 12 receive breaks on their required number of participation hours. For households experiencing acute family or personal needs, we also offer up to 12 weeks a year family leave.

Q: What is your pet policy?

A: We are still finalizing it. Pets will definitely be allowed, but with some restrictions, given the close quarters nature of urban apartment living. Before committing to the group, we ask you to discuss with us any pets you already have to make sure it’s a good fit.

Q: What is your smoking policy?

A: We haven’t yet developed a smoking policy for smoking in the common areas. If you join us, you can be on the committee that works on the policy. Some thoughts about a possible future policy: since we will technically be renters, it's possible that smoking will not be allowed in the apartments. On the other hand, a smoker could determine the cost to professionally clean smoke from an apartment, and pay a smoking deposit to be used if they move out.