Category: About Cohousing

Picnic in the Park

Socialize in-person with others interested in cohousing at TCCN’s annual picnic held in St. Paul, MN.

FREE to attend
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
Como Park picnic shelter
6:00-8:00 PM

Image shows a gathering of people at a hexagonal gazebo picnic shelter at Como Park near trees, grass, picnic tables and grills.
Shelter photo by St. Paul Parks and Recreation

Bring your favorite picnic foods, beverages and utensils for a picnic with Twin Cities Cohousing Network volunteers and other cohousing supporters and share in an evening of connection and fun at a quaint open-sided picnic shelter in St. Paul’s Como Park. (Map of west picnic shelter location.)

Look for TCCN’s banner at the picnic area on the west side of the park located at 1300 Midway Parkway, east of Hamline Avenue, near the mini golf course and children’s playground. Bathrooms are located near the picnic shelter. Picnic parking is first come first serve.

Families, friends, and children welcome! Meet and greet others with an interest in building and living in cohousing communities in Minnesota.

Register

So we know to expect you and can alert you in case of inclement weather.

Event Schedule

5:30 — Begin to gather at picnic shelter #50. Bring your own food, beverage, and utensils. Water will be available. (Share food items with others if you feel comfortable.)

6:00 — Picnicking and conversation. Discuss existing cohousing and efforts to start new cohousing communities.

8:00 — Clean up.

A child making a giant bubble at the Como Park picnic shelter 2021 event.

Rental costs for the picnic shelter were provided by our supporters. Twin Cities Cohousing Network is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.

The Need for Permanent Affordability: Community Land Trusts & Cohousing

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”

View on YouTube

Recorded on May 10, 2023 via Zoom.

Greg Rosenberg
(photo used by permission)

Learn more about Greg at Rosenberg and Associates.

TCCN’s publicity partner for this event is:

Logo with stylized blue "M" and the words, "Minnesota Community Land Trust Coalition. A permanent solution for affordable housing."

For more information on Minnesota’s 13 Community Land Trust organizations go to mncltc.org.

What’s up with cohousing in Minnesota?

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

Ann Zabaldo event

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

View this presentation on TCCN’s YouTube Channel

Ann Zabaldo
Wed. Oct. 12, 2022
7:00 – 8:30 PM Central

Image of Ann Zabaldo wearing green glasses and smiling brightly.
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.

Volunteer Paul Wehrwein featured in StarTribune “Inspired” section.

Committee and member of Twin Cities Metro Senior Cohousing, a cohousing group in formation, was recently featured in the StarTribune’s Inspired section.

Paul Wehrwein, a volunteer on Twin Cities Cohousing Network’s Events Committee and member of Twin Cities Metro Senior Cohousing, a cohousing group in formation, was recently featured on June 10, 2022 in the StarTribune’s Inspired section. Reporter Gail Rosenblum interviewed Wehrwein about his dreams for cohousing, where cohousing exists now, and how the cohousing movement started.

Read the full article.

TCCN brings you CohoUS resources and benefits

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.)

See all partnership benefits here.

Explore the appeal of cohousing by participating in a story circle.

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

Photo by Beth Macdonald on Unsplash

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.

Register on the course site to attend 1, 2, or all 3 (limit of 20 registrations per session)

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 are FREE 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.

Is affordable cohousing possible?

Affordable Cohousing: Challenges and Opportunities
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
7:00 to 8:30 PM

View event recording

Followup Resources (PDF)

We know there is a huge need for affordable housing in the Twin Cities. And many of us are interested in affordable cohousing units. What strategies should cohousing groups implement to bring down costs?

A national cohousing conference last October centered on this pivotal concern about affordability, drawing on examples from communities recently built. In February, three local cohousing advocates who attended that conference will report on some of the highlights, and then attendees will have a chance to join the discussion.

If housing affordability is important to you, and cohousing is appealing as a way to live, please join us as we attempt to co-create and spread approaches that can work here.

Lynn Englund
Kathy Ahlers
Image of Becca Brackett
Becca Brackett


A summer photo of a third floor balcony with clusters of chairs and potted plants thatt overlooks a common garden area of a cohousing community in Denmark.
BO cohousing. Photo by Fred Olson

Join the Nat’l Conf. Ad Hoc Planning Circle

Madison to host the 2022 National Cohousing Conference

 TCCN’s ad hoc planning circle seeks people interested in maximizing cohousing networking and fun for Minnesotans who attend the National Cohousing Conference in Madison, WI, August 25-28, 2022.

The group will help Catalyze Cohousing in Minnesota by encouraging Minnesotans to register for the conference and making it fun and accessible for Minnesotans to participate in a variety of ways.

What inspires you to participate?

  • Getting the word out about the conference?
  • Organizing a hospitality suite in Madison?
  • Organizing car-pools and busses to transport people to Madison?
  • Researching Madison restaurants for dinner gatherings for Minnesotans?
  • Visiting a few of Madison’s four cohousing communities?
  • Gatherings for remote conference viewing via Zoom?
  • Gatherings to review recorded sessions after the conference?
  • Camping in local parks rather than staying in a hotel?

Ready to get involved? Email Becca Brackett of Cedar Cohousing, LLC to let her know of your interest.

Becca visiting PDX Cohousing during the 2019 National Conference.
Cohousing US logo
Check Cohousing US for national conference updates.
August fields of hay. Photo by Nikolett Emmert from Pexel

Life in cohousing encourages resource sharing

Register to attend Twin Cities Cohousing Network’s final quarterly meeting of 2021 and engage with supporters of cohousing. The topic is resource sharing. Please bring a memory of a time when you shared a resource with others. Participants will also hear from guest Rick Gravrok, a resident of Monterey Cohousing Community, about the way that resources are shared in his community.

Resource Sharing
Wednesday, November 3
7:00 to 8:15 PM

Due to concerns about the spread of Covid-19, this will be a Zoom event. Register in advance to receive your Zoom meeting link.

Women gardening on the roof of PDX Commons, cohousing located in Portland, Oregon.