Comment on Co-Housing as a Great Retirement and End of Life Alternative

Raines Cohen, Cohousing Coach, Planning for Sustainable Communities, Berkeley, CA,

Posted an excellent comment on co-housing.

Thanks for including cohousing on your list of options for alternatives to Nursing Homes. A lot of the types of "experts" you list probably won't be aware of it, because it is a member-led ground-up community movement, only recently forming communities specific for a senior population, and the idea that "we can do it ourselves" is threatening to some of the institutions and even to professionals established in the "industry of aging".

You are fortunate in the DC area to have a large number of built (multigenerational) communities, and a strong regional association: Mid-Atlantic Cohousing (MAC) , which links to communities in the area, both built and forming; the group's leader, Ann Zabaldo, was my classmate in learning about Denmark's "Study Group 1" model curriculum that has led to the proliferation of Senior Cohousing there and is doing some talks in preparation for offering such a class in your area.

Raines Cohen, Cohousing Coach, Planning for Sustainable Communities, Berkeley, CA
writing from the Positive Aging conference at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL, where there's a lot of excitement about alternatives including cohousing and the Beacon Hill Village model I've also studied.