Housing woes? Consider starting a co-housing community!

Concerns about housing affordability in Metro Vancouver is at an all-time high. While New Westminster has long been an enclave of affordability in the Lower Mainland, prices here are climbing as fast as anywhere else. Combine that with the issue of supply (New West housing stock has a disproportionately small number of two- and three-bedroom units compared to most places in the Lower Mainland), and you can see why so many families struggle to find suitable housing here.

An unconventional solution that is gaining popularity is co-housing, in which two or more unrelated families live in separate dwellings but share common space. While there are currently no co-housing developments in New Westminster, this approach to multifamily living is a solution worth considering here.

Co-housing communities are often less expensive than similarly sized condos or townhouses, and often benefit from generous common areas, such as a commercial-grade kitchen, art studio, gym, games room, bike storage, or yard space. Some expenses such as maintenance, utilities, taxes and repairs, are also shared. Co-housing is sometimes purpose-built, as in the Cranberry Commons development in Burnaby but may also be adapted from existing structures.

Co-housing isn’t like a commune. Residents are not removed from society; they create an interconnected community within society. Residents do not necessarily share economic resources, religious beliefs or the same ethnic background.

Co-housing is also different than co-op housing because residences are owned by individuals, rather than held by a co-operative organization. Unlike co-op residents, those in co-housing communities are free to re-sell their units at market value.

Although they are often legally structured as a “strata.” A co-housing strata is also different than your typical condo because it is typically a not-for-profit development designed by its future residents, not a for-profit venture by a development corporation.

Today there are more than 120 operating co-housing communities in North America, with over 100 more currently in development. Each one is unique. Some are urban, some rural. Some are designed as condos or townhomes, and some are separate structures arranged around a common green space. In some cases, they are even retrofitted within existing neighbourhoods when neighbours buy adjacent properties and remove fences.

What all co-housing developments have in common is a sense of community that many of us in our isolated little boxes only dream about.

Briana Tomkinson is a New Westminster mom, freelance writer, and Editor in Chief of www.TenthtotheFraser.ca