Join us April 19 from 10:00-11:30 AM to discover how senior cohousing differs from other senior housing options.
“Ours will not be our parents’ aging. It will be different— vibrant, socially revolutionary, and fun.”
So dreamed the founders of Wolf Creek Lodge, a senior cohousing community in Grass Valley, CA, thriving since 2012.
What differentiates senior cohousing from other kinds of senior living? Does it exist in Minnesota? How does it work? Who might like it and who might not?
Discover what senior cohousing has to offer by registering below. With the help of brief video clips shown during the event, Twin Cities Cohousing Network (TCCN) will be your guide for questions and conversation on this topic.
Seniors in Cohousing Sat, April 19, 2025 10:00-11:30 CDT Free and open to all
Established in 1991 as a charitable organization, TCCN Cohousing Network works to educate Minnesotans about cohousing and connect people who are interested in it.
Get a feel for a variety of cohousing communities by attending in-person and virtual local and national cohousing open house events the week of April 28.
✅ Drop in to chat with TCCN volunteers during our virtual cohousing open house event. Learn about TCCN and talk informally about cohousing in Minnesota in these times.
✅ Let TCCN publicize your local open house or virtual tour in TCCN New
Create an in-person or virtual event to inform people about your cohousing community, or plans to create one, anywhere within TCCN’s service area.
Email TCCN News editor Becca Brackett by April 10 (Becca@tccoho.org ) with details for your date, time, location, and how to register for your event to include it in the April edition of TCCN News.
Cohousing has been described as a return to village living. It is community designed for connection, with private homes surrounded by shared spaces. Cohousing communities are usually initiated, financed and managed by the residents themselves. Cohousers typically share periodic meals in a “common house.” While some cohousing communities are senior focused, most are multi-generational. What would be advantageous for kids and parents in such an environment? What would be challenging? What might senior members have to gain or lose?
With the help of some video clips, TCCN will be your guide for your questions and conversation on this topic. Also, a couple local groups that aspire to become cohousing communities or cooperatives will provide updates on their status and activities. The basics of what is cohousing will be provided.
Twin Cities Cohousing Network has big ideas for 2024. Please join us Wednesday, Feb. 21 on Zoom event for a special listening session. We want to hear to your feedback about ideas we are considering for 2024 and your suggestions for how to get cohousing communities built!
Twin Cities Cohousing Network has big ideas for 2024.
Registration is required to receive your Zoom link
The volunteers who organize and run Twin Cities Cohousing Network are seeking your input on how TCCN can best assist groups aspiring to build new cohousing communities. Here are two new ideas we are considering:
The first is expanding our scope from the Twin Cities to all of Minnesota. Get a peek at our proposed new name and let us know if you think this change is a good idea and how we should start connecting with others across the state.
Second, would small in-person discussion circles with friends, and friends of friends, be more likely to build energy for cohousing than large Zoom events? Learn about a proposed program that could take place among small groups of people located anywhere in Minnesota. Provide your feedback to help it succeed.
There will be small group discussions, and your questions and will be addressed. And please bring your ideas for future topics!”
Twin Cities Cohousing Network (TCCN) continues to support CohoUS, our national cohousing association. Last year’s Community Partner program has been renamed the Community Member program for 2024.
Being a CohoUS Community Member provides TCCN with access to a valuable array of free and discounted CohoUS recorded programs, online events, trainings, and other offers that can be accessed online at CohoUS and the Cohousing Institute.
You can access all the features mentioned above by making a charitable gift to TCCN of $60 or more during a calendar year.
TCCN Access is limited to residents of Minnesota who are not members of an existing cohousing community. Please complete and submit this form to confirm your eligibility and to see options for making a secure donation.
Twin Cities Cohousing Network is a nonprofit charitable 501(c)(3) organization. Tax ID number: EIN 41-1668910. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. No goods or services were given in exchange for your gift.
Why do people want to live in cohousing? Karen Gimnig has experienced cohousing as a resident and is professional facilitator who support groups forming and living in cohousing . She is also an author, making her October 11th presentation one you won’t want to miss.
Meet the Professionals: Karen Gimnig
Karen Gimnig is a relationship coach with a particular focus on group process and community. She has lived in cohousing communities in Georgia and Oregon. In her role as a professional facilitator, she offers classes and workshops to support cohousing groups across the country as they build and learn to live together in cohousing. Karen worked for several years for the Cohousing Association of the US. In addition, she co-authored The Cooperative Culture Handbook with Yana Ludwig, making many of the concepts and skills she teaches in her classes and workshops available in book form. Karen currently lives in Anacortes WA with her husband Jamie. They enjoy hiking and sailing through all the beauty of the Puget Sound.
Greg Rosenberg’s experience creating cohousing communities and his extensive knowledge of community land trusts (CLTs) offers an exciting approach to creating cohousing communities with permanently affordable housing units.
Meet the Professionals: Greg Rosenberg
Rosenberg discussed some of the economic justice challenges that come with building desirable places to live, and some of the methods to develop mixed-income cohousing. Cohousing, when not price-controlled, can easily become expensive to the point of being exclusionary. This session will highlight the need for price restrictions using resale formulas (eg. through a community land trust (CLT)) to ensure ongoing affordability, and discuss the steps to subsidize home prices and keep them affordable. Two contrasting examples of mixed-income cohousing in Madison will be featured: Troy Gardens (a project of Madison Area CLT) and Linden Cohousing.
Meet the Professionals: Greg Rosenberg
“The Need for Permanent Affordability: Community Land Trusts and Cohousing”
The Feb. 8 event features updates from groups working to create cohousing communities in Minnesota. Small breakout groups after the updates will allow viewers time to ask questions and engage with each other and our presenters.
Twin Cities Cohousing Network’s next virtual event features updates from groups working to create cohousing communities in Minnesota. Smaller breakout groups after brief group updates will allow views time to ask questions and engage with each other and our presenters. Topics that we have invited our speakers to address include: the ups and downs of forming a core group, working to agree on a common vision, the challenges of finding a suitable site, working with cohousing professionals and addressing challenges of affordability.
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 7:00-8:30 PM via Zoom. Register in advance to receive your zoom link. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Minnesota outline provided by Suncatcherstudio.com
Don’t miss hearing from national cohousing professional and enthusiast Ann Zabaldo at TCCN’s next Meet the Professionals event on Zoom. Zabaldo’s tireless efforts and successes are sure to inspire those of us envisioning more Minnesota cohousing communities!
Meet the Professionals
Hear from national cohousing professional and enthusiast Ann Zabaldo at TCCN’s Meet the Professionals event. Zabaldo’s tireless efforts and successes are sure to inspire those of us envisioning more Minnesota cohousing communities!
“Everyone living next to someone who cares about them” — My role in creating cohousing, working with a developer, and helping cohousing in the mid-Atlantic states
Ann Zabaldo Wed. Oct. 12, 2022 7:00 – 8:30 PM Central
Ann Zabaldo, Washington DC
Ann Zabaldo is both a pioneer volunteer and a paid professional in the cohousing movement. She specializes in outreach, education, marketing, and fueling the fires of burning souls working to start cohousing.
Ann is past-president of The Cohousing Association of the United States (CohoUS) and is a co-founder and current board member of Mid Atlantic Cohousing, a regional non-profit organization. She is a certified facilitator for McCamant & Durrett’s Senior Cohousing Study Group workshops. She is co-executive producer of “Building Sustainable Communities for Today’s Housing Market” a DVD and companion handbook created specifically for developers who are interested in entering the cohousing market niche.
Ann was on the development team for both Eastern Village Cohousing in Silver Spring, Maryland and Takoma Village Cohousing in Washington, DC where she lives with 65 adults, 15 children, seven dogs and waaaay too many cats. Currently, for Takoma Village she is serving on the Bylaws Working Group to revise the bylaws and the Resale and Rental pod (team or committee). This pod has brought in excellent buyers who are prepared to live in cohousing. Plus, more than $120,000 in donations to the community. Her description of living in cohousing? “It’s a rolling Mardi Gras.”
Twin Cities Cohousing Network is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Please consider making a donation in any amount to help us continue our Meet the Professional speaker series. Donate securely via PayPal or Donate via GiveMN. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent of the law.
TCCN’s July 20th summer picnic was attended by local writer John Horchner who wrote about his experience talking with attendees about their interest in creating and living in cohousing communities. His commentary, “Can cohousing solve Twin Cities’ economic inequality,” was published in the September 2020 issue of the Park Bugle, a local newspaper serving a number of St. Paul’s neighborhoods near the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus.
The picnic was attended by about forty people who included representatives of newly forming groups, groups that have been meeting for a while, and people who were interested in learning more about cohousing.
For more information about cohousing groups forming in Minnesota, subscribe to TCCN News, an almost-monthly electronic newsletter.
Author John Horchner with TCCN volunteer Paul Wehrwein at TCCN’s summer picnic.
Twin Cities Cohousing Network (TCCN) has partnered with The Cohousing Association of the United States (CohoUS). This partnership offers TCCN’s partnership supporters access to all CohoUS recordings, events, and resources during 2022 with an annual gift of $60 or more. (The Cohousing US individual partnership fee is $150; joining with TCCN is a savings of $90 per calendar year.)
On May 11, Grace Kim will kick off Twin Cities Cohousing Network’s new speaker series, “Meet the Professional” with her talk, “Cohousing: A Short-Term Antidote to Loneliness and Long-Term Retirement Plan” to help us catalyze cohousing in Minnesota. There will be time for Q&A.
Cohousing: A Short-Term Antidote to Loneliness and Long-Term Retirement Plan
On May 11, renowned architect Grace Kim kicked off Twin Cities Cohousing Network’s new speaker series, Meet the Professionals. This series connects viewers with well-known cohousing professionals who generously share their cohousing journeys and offer advice for how we can catalyze cohousing in Minnesota.
While Grace Kim and Mike Mariano (her partner in both life and practice) were studying architecture in London in early 90’s, they learned about the concept of cohousing from a Danish guest lecturer. This idea captured their imagination and became the foundation for their lifelong partnership (both personally and professionally). Since starting Schemata Workshop in 2004, Grace’s focus has been on multifamily housing with a strong focus on community. And in those intervening years, she has become an international expert in cohousing, inspiring projects around the globe. Her 2017 Ted Talk on the benefits of cohousing has received more than 3M views; and her Common House Design Guide along with the design of her own cohousing community has served as a resource for many national and international projects.
In her exclusive presentation for Twin Cities Cohousing Network, Grace shared her journey in cohousing and offered advice to those in the Twin Cities who are interested in catalyzing cohousing. She talked about the positive impact cohousing can have on combating loneliness and other long-term benefits.
Grace is also the cofounder of Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing, a collaborative residential community which includes her street level office and a rooftop urban farm. She walks the talk of sustainability – leaving a small ecological footprint while incorporating holistic ideals of social and economic resilience into her daily life.
Grace has visited more than 90 cohousing communities in North America, Denmark and South Korea. Grace served on the national board for the Cohousing Association of the US and she currently serves on the Professional Advisory Council. She was the Chair of the 2009 National Cohousing Conference and International Cohousing Summit in Seattle, and the Co-Chair of the 2019 National Cohousing Conference in Portland.
Twin Cities Cohousing Network is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Please consider making a donation in any amount to help us continue our Meet the Professional speaker series. Donate securely via PayPal or Donate via GiveMN. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent of the law.
Register for one or more of the three FREE story circle sessions and engage with others interested in cohousing. Story Circle sessions are offered via Zoom on Thursdays, Mar 24, 31, and Apr 7, 2022 from 7:00-8:30 PM CDT
A story circle is a time-honored tradition of telling stories without interruption until everyone in the circle who wishes to speak has spoken. The uniqueness of our own story settled next to other stories provides insight into similarities and differences in our backgrounds and experiences and opens us to deeper understanding. Discussion and questions follow as time permits.
Register for one or more of the three FREE story circle sessions and engage with others interested in cohousing as we share our stories and discuss cohousing.
Story Circle sessions are offered via Zoom Thur — Mar 24, Mar 31, Apr 7, 2022 — 7:00-8:30 PM CDT
Please read Steps to Get Ready for the story circle/s that you are interested in attending. Our story circle guidelines are also listed on the Steps to Get Ready page on the course site.
Each session’s unique story circle prompt is selected to help us understand an aspect of the appeal of living in a cohousing community — as well awareness of the challenges and opportunities that may arise. Cohousing resources on this site complement our learning for those who want to deepen their understanding of cohousing and how it differs from kinds of housing and living arrangements.
These sessions areFREE to help the instructor test the format. Free-will donations to Twin Cities Cohousing Network are greatly appreciated. The course facilitator volunteers her time and is not selling a product or representing any product for sale. The materials in this course are publicly available and have been curated to encourage participants to explore them. Each session is limited to a maximum of 20 participants.
