Tag: cohousing

Dialogue with Alan O’Hashi on Cohousing

For those drawn to intentional community and cohousing, they will delight in viewing Alan O’Hashi at 7:00 p.m on May 8, 2024, on Zoom. 

A Meet the Professionals speaker event

O’Hashi is a newspaper journalist turned documentary filmmaker, screenwriter, author, nonprofit leader and activist. He works with groups and organizations to help them tell their stories.  For this event, Alan will speak from his experience as a board member of the US Cohousing Association and his time living in Silver Sage Village, a cohousing senior community in Boulder, CO. There will be time for Q and A.

Meet the Professionals:
Alan O’Hashi

Wednesday, May 8, 2024
7:00 to 8:30 PM on Zoom

Register for zoom

Registration is required to receive a Zoom link. Limit: 100 participants.

Register for hybrid group zoom

Group Zoom viewing at Unity Church Unitarian in St. Paul, space is limited. 

Alan O’Hashi
  • Cultural competency training and facilitation
  • Cohousing Community Process Consultant
  • Positions held: Cohousing USA Board of Directors; previously Boulder Planning Board, former Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity St Vrain Valley – Longmont, Colorado.

Alan’s presentation will include material from this book. It is available for purchase at Fellowship for Intentional Community and other booksellers.

Book cover for "True Stories of an Aging do-Gooder" by Alan O'Hashi. Text over an image of rolling green hills.

New CohoUS Access

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.

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.

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.

TCCN picnic report in the news

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.

Grace Kim, renowned cohousing architect to speak

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

Grace Kim, architect

View this session on TCCN’s YouTube Channel!

Grace Kim, FAIA
Wed., May 11, 2022
7:00-8:30 PM

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.

Daybreak Cohousing, Portland, OR

Thank you, Brian PaStarr!

Twin Cities Cohousing Network celebrates Brian PaStarr as his term as his term on Vision Circle has come to an end

Twin Cities Cohousing Network (TCCN) celebrates Brian PaStarr as his term on our board comes to an end. He has not sought another term in order to give himself time to prepare for a possible move to Wisconsin to be closer to his grandchildren, and to have more time for writing.

TCCN’s board members have tremendous gratitude for the many contributions Brian he has made to our organization. He became a Vision Circle member at the time the group reorganized in 2016 and has served as vice president, president, and leader of the events circle, where he helped plan many face-t0-face and zoom events. He facilitated many in-person and virtual meetings with grace, humor and skill. We have benefitted greatly from Brian’s generosity and commitment to further cohousing communities in Minnesota. We and wish him the very best in his next adventures.

An image of Brian PaStarr standing with three women outside with snow and woods in the background.
Brian PaStarr with other TCCN members during a 2018 retreat.

To the future and beyond with CoHousing!

Wednesday, April 28, 2021. Zoom, 7:00-8:15 P.M. CDT. FREE registration.

Have you heard about the amazing inventions they’re trying out on Mars!?

There’s an amazing innovation here on earth, and Trish Becker-Hafnor is going to tell us about it.

TEDx Talk presenter Trich Becker Hafnor speaking on stage.
Trish Becker-Hafnor, TEDx Talk (January 2020).
Photo and video used by permission of Michael Jenet of TEDx Cherry Creek Women.

Join us as we watch, then discuss, Trish’s short, lively TEDx Talk, Cohousing and the Future of Community and Human Connection.

Trish shares what is groundbreaking about CoHousing, an newer form of intentional community.  She also shares how her cohousing community has affected her family and neighbors. Trish is an educator, activist, parent and community co-founder.

Cohousing is just one point on a wide spectrum of communal living models, and it’s basically built around three principles: shared space, shared time, and shared values. — Trish Becker-Hafnor

Whether you are taking a small next step towards your future in community, or simply an interesting evening in the company of others, you’re welcome to register for this special Zoom event by using the link below.

Zoom registration link. Completing this form allows us to send you a confirmation email with the link to the event.

Finances and funnies

Wed. Sept. 16, 2020

A window on cohousing sharing and caring, with a bit of pandemic humor

Learn how cohousing communities are being affected by COVID-19 and how they are responding to meet new social and financial challenges. Humor is included in the presentation, including a series of one-liners written and delivered by a participant.

Register now to obtain your personal Zoom link in order to view this special presentation by Cohousing U.S. Communications Director Karen Gimnig and Executive Director Karin Hoskin. Discussion among registered Zoom participants will follow.

Wednesday, September 16, 2020
7:00-8:00 PM
Free, but registration is required by 6 PM on September 14 to receive your personal Zoom link.  

Artist's image of happy and expressive people standing on their balconies making music, singing, dancing, and enjoying themselves while social distancing.
Inspired by the balconies around the world and the spirit of humanity while social distancing. Image created by Shua Baber. Submitted for United Nations Global Call Out To Creatives – help stop the spread of COVID-19. Accessed at Unsplash.com.