January 28, 2005
update
Hi friends-
I met with Sue Reynolds, the executive director of Community Housing Works, this last Tuesday. We had a nice meeting and talked about the possibility of partnering on a housing cooperative project. Let me give you some information from that meeting.
First the good news. The government offers special deferred loans especially for limited-equity cooperatives. In the three limited-eqity housing cooperative projects CH Works has done, this loan made it possible so people could buy there units for under $3,000. Because of the complicated process in becoming approved for these "blanket loans," (ie feasibility reports, environmental reports, contracting out the legal work, etc) it would be necessary for us to partner with a project coordinator such as Community Housing Works. Unfortunately, CH Works no longer works in establishing cooperatives. They want to do work right now mostly in establishing affordable rental complexes consisting of at least 80 units. That said, Ms Reynolds was very encouraging in the idea of us establishing a cooperative and said that the ideal size is 25-40 families, a target range I think doable within our multi-congregation. She gave me the names and numbers of a few other community development non-profits in the San Diego area who might be interested in partnering with us in the project so I'll try to contact them today.
Ms Reynolds suggested that are objectives at this point are twofold. First, we should be in initial contact with some of these groups and see if this sort of project interests them. Second, we must continue to educate and build up a core group of people who are seriously interested in trying to establish the cooperative. For us, I think that means bringing in someone who could talk with us and others from the multi-congregation about their work with cooperatives. I forgot to ask Sue for some of the names of people who helped plan, execute, and now live in the cooperatives in town that they started but I called her today and will probably hear from her Monday. If we could get one of these persons to come who is also familiar with the financing aspect of things, I think it would be a good meeting.
Well, let me know if you have any suggestions/questions on how the process is going so far.
Peace,
Aaron
Posted by aaronfriberg at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2005
housing coop update
Hi friends-
I thought I would update you all on the housing co-op progress. I have been trying to talk to people who could come chat with us about cooperative housing. The first is Lottie Cohen (a cooperative lawyer in LA). I have emailed her twice and have not heard back from her. I suspect her email is down since one message was returned to me and since she quickly returned my calls before when I contacted her. The second person is Anne Wilson who works with Community Housing Works (an offshoot of Price Charities). CH Works has assisted in financing and developing three limited equity housing cooperatives in San Diego within the last 5 years. I think there's great potential for us to work with them and it would be ideal for them to come and speak with us. They were able to finance these co-ops to such an extant that they would be very reasonable to afford. Check out their website at www.communityhousingworks.org Another potential source of financing in San Diego is through the San Diego Housing Commission. They provide a lot of loans/grants for first time home-buyers and housing developers in San Diego. There adderss is www.sdhc.net. Looking at this info just gets me more excited about the possibility of funding for a project we would be interested in.
After talking to Pastor Antony I have become more convinced that buying co-ops could be a real possibility even if we were to receive limited grants. If an apartment unit with around three rooms costs around $120,000 (the average price per units that I was looking at in City Heights is $105,000 per unit if buying whole complex so 120,000 is my guestimate for the larger units) then mortgage payments could very well be below $1,000 a month. That is less than pastor Antony and most of the families in our church pay currently just to rent. Of course, we will have to get a good chunk of money up front for a down payment but some in our church have money saved up and there's a good chance we could secure some money from the district. Anyways, I'm pretty hopeful for the project and excited about moving forward and having a professional come speak with us. Well, feel free to respond back to me and/or the whole group with ideas, suggestions, concerns, etc. Thanks for you interest and faithfulness.
Peace,
Aaron
Posted by aaronfriberg at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
Welcome to the housing co-op blog!
Hi, and welcome to the housing co-op blog!
For now, this space will be mainly used by our good friend Aaron Friberg as a place to communicate with the members of the MidCity Church of the Nazarene who are intersted in living cooperatively here in San Diego.
Aaron has already devoted much of his time to researching this issue so that we, together, can turn this into a sustainable reality and live like the early Church as described in the book of Acts.
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his or her possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he or she had need.
Hey, I think that passage should have been a guiding light for everything we've been doing here at Just Enough to begin with!
Without further ado, I'll let Aaron take it away!
Posted by ericisrad at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)