« Jacob Center, etc. | Main | Speakers Coming »
March 06, 2005
Weekend update
Hi friends-
Sorry for taking so long in writing an update on the housing cooperative. First some good news. Pastor Antony has mentioned that about 10 families are interested in discussing communal ownership together as are about 5 families from the Cambodian group. Interest for the project is definitely there.
As mentioned in the last email the objective right now is to find a developer who could assist us in at least exploring some form of cooperative living. About two weeks ago I met with Bob Kennedy of the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Diego to see if they would be interested in our project. This option doesn't look too promising. The city is not really interested in groups trying to establishing housing in which the potential tenants are largely predetermined. They would rather have anonymous applications to projects they complete so it doesn't look as if they will be able to assist us. This means that there are really no local options as far as housing developers who have experience in non-profit cooperative arrangements. We will have to see if there are potential developers who have experience located in other parts of the country.
To that end, a week ago I called the housing project developer from the National Cooperative Bank. She has not returned my call so I'll try to give her a ring again tomorrow. I have not contacted that housing cooperative lawyer again as I was seeing if we could contact someone locally but I will attempt to get in contact with her again this week.
Another option that both John Wright and Scott Borger have suggested as a possible course of action is to see if we can buy smaller units like 10 or so units at a time and not worry at this time about doing the non-profit thing since it takes a lot more technical assistance. (We could likely easily find a project developer in town if we are just buying an appartment complex collectively - a lot less hoops and expertise needed than the non-profit model.) Without talking it though with you, my first response is that this would certainly be a viable model as some families of lower incomes for whom buying single family homes is not an option would be able to participate. The equity people acquire could then possibly be used in buying a larger complex in the future that could possibly be a non-profit model.
At any rate, I will see if I can get ahold of some people this week. We should probably meet again soon to discuss possible ways of going forward. In general, what are good nights to meet for all of you? Or mornings and afternoons if Saturday? Look forward to hearing your ideas.
Peace,
Aaron
Posted by aaronfriberg at March 6, 2005 10:09 PM
Comments
Aaron,
To go beyond the local opens up a number of options, maybe very good ones. But I also think this project could benefit from a conversation with the following:
- Jim Bell -- expertise in ecological development and a great interest in community living
- Peter Lind -- an attorney (local) who has been working on cooperative housing issues for the past couple of years
- Howard Thurston -- a green designer in Portland who was at the Lifestyles event last year and is completely interested in this kind of thing
- Susan Moore and the Insitute for Community Economics who may have a lot of help.
- The Eco-Village in Los Angeles -- an urban cooperative project
You've done some great and time-consuming work so far. I believe some of the people above would be able to help us think through the next steps and break through into getting what we truly want.
I'm writing this from Tucson. But I'll be back Wed-Thu of this week; then gone for the weekend; but back again the following week. If any of the above sounds helpful, I can get contact info, etc., to you or whomever.
Lee
Posted by: Lee Van Ham at March 7, 2005 10:23 AM
Hi Aaron,
Thanks for this info. I'm really excited about this. If we would like to get together here are the nights that usually work for me: Tuesdays, Thursdays, any time on Saturday (for the most part).
grace and peace-
jt
Posted by: Jenn Tracy at March 7, 2005 10:24 AM
Aaron and all ~
Thanks for keeping us posted. Saturdays work best for me (except for
the 2nd weekend of every month).
Thanks,
tiana
ps - if you need a venue for this, let us know.
Posted by: Tiana Reinhardt at March 7, 2005 10:51 AM
Great work, Aaron! If we're going "for profit," we might want to look at the "tenants in common" model for a joint purchase and maybe form a limited liability corporation with multiple investors (all those willing to participate). The contracts are a little complex, but I have real estate friends who have expressed an interest in donating their time to help us with all the formalities and legalities of a purchase as we seek to move forward. It's the same people that Jeff and Erin met with last week in their search, Elisa and Mark O'Rourke. Mark also does home inspections (informally) and would be happy to take a look at any property in which we're interested.
Jamie
Posted by: Jamie Gates at March 8, 2005 08:47 AM