Register for this free virtual event to learn what Sam Naylor discovered about the influence of architecture on community living and his insights insights into how design can influence housing equity.
“The effect of housing design on cooperative living.”
Over three years, Sam Naylor, architect, educator, and researcher, visited over 100 cooperative housing projects on four continents. His visits included cohousing communities, housing cooperatives, and other informal communal living arrangements, which helped him distill the housing design elements that contribute most to the cooperative spirit and ethos of community living.
Architect Sam Naylor, AIA
Architect Sam Naylor, AIA “The effects of housing design on cooperative living.” Wednesday, October 22, 2025 Free virtual event, 7:00 to 8:30 pm
First of its scale and kind, the 500 Communities Program is a program created by Katie McCamant, one of the founders and significant figures of cohousing in the United States. Community is more valuable than ever in the wake of post-pandemic isolationism. While creating a cohousing community is often an exciting solution, many seekers are immediately met with an off-the-beaten-path world of questions and roadblocks. These issues cause people to quit before they can even start. Katie McCamant saw this issue, and created the program in her company, CoHousing Solutions, specifically designed for those who are creating or working professionally with cohousing communities.
This 12 month intensive course is designed to expand the professional support for those who are establishing new cohousing communities. Professionals who join the program arrive from a variety of backgrounds; from credit union higher-ups, architects, and real estate workers, to healthcare experts and nonprofit leaders– all come together to pool their strengths and to gain a deep understanding of the processes involved within developing a cohousing settlement from scratch.
The curriculum is extensive, emphasizing the big picture aspects first: feasibility and community outreach. Once the groundwork is laid, more complex topics such as approaching local developers, getting municipal approval, setting up mortgages, and managing a budget are explored in a practical manner with many case studies. 500 Communities participants have many opportunities to engage with the cohousing movement. That includes in-person events such as the biannual cohousing conference, the kickoff retreat in Nevada, and visiting thriving cohousing communities. Also relationships are established through webinars, small class discussions, one-on-one mentorship with Katie, and monthly calls.
Upon completion, graduates will attain the title of “Certified Cohousing Consultant” and will have the opportunity to continue working with CoHousing Solutions to receive ongoing benefits. Christina Marshall, a graduate of this program and founder of Kinni Cohousing in River Falls, WI, said the most valuable features of the program for her were both the connections she made and the credibility she garnered. It was invaluable to her that she could interact with people who were supportive of her ideas and those who knew how to realize them.
In fact, Alastair Townsend, a globally accomplished architect and experienced real estate professional, is lending his abilities to Kinni cohousing due to a connection formed during the program. Moreover, completing the program allowed her to start assisting emerging communities such as Forest Glen at Highland Lake (Flatrock, NC) and Dakota Prairie Commons (Vermillion, SD) with their goals, due to the skills and experience she had gained during the program. While the results of the 500 Communities Program are not measured, it is certainly evident that it has centralized and enhanced the knowledge on the creation of cohousing, something not easily measured.
Bring your favorite picnic foods, beverages and utensilsfor a low-waste event. Share food and beverages with others if you wish. Register separately for each location so that we can contact you in case of cancelation due to weather.
Lincoln Park, outdoor playground pavilion. Head up Lincoln Park Drive from the intersection of 25th Ave West and West 3rd street. Look for the picnic tables under the shelter. There is a small parking lot next to the picnic area off Lincoln Park drive, another above off 25th Ave West, and street parking off 25th Ave West (with stairs to picnic area). Map and parking directions (PDF)
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. Map of west picnic shelter location.
Como Park picnic shelter, west picnic grounds. St. Paul, MN.
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.
East Lake Commons (ELC) cohousing community is located in the Metro area of Atlanta, Georgia. It was started in 1997. The initial idea for the co-housing community came from a group of folks at the local Quaker meeting who teamed with developer Jack Morse. East Lake Commons is one of the largest Cohousing projects in the US with 67 units with about ten basement rentals.
Karen, a long time resident, was kind enough to accommodate my (Jan’s) family for a two and half hour walking tour of their beautiful community. Karen was frank about not only sharing the community’s successes, but also their shortcomings.
Geothermal piping under the soccer field provides yearly 68 degree air to the common house making it an energy saver both in cold and warm weather. The common house is the light yellow building beyond the field, with solar panels on roof.
General Features of East Lake Commons in Atlanta
Zero-steps design help make all buildings accessible.
Permanents and temporary signposts to help delivery drivers locate houses easily.
A community provided wagon is available for their local postal worker to deliver mail to the common house.
Housing Units
Maintenance HOA fees of $290-330 per house.
Many homes have multiple floors, but some are single level flats.
With the aging demographics there aren’t enough single level flats to accommodate less mobile residents. Some are equipped with wheelchair doors and wheelchair accommodations inside.
Solar panels are installed on 12-15 homes.
To attract a more mainstream appeal for his investment Jack Morris had pushed for larger residential units, so the units here are larger than would be typical of a Cohousing project.
A view of the Great Room in the common house at East Lake Commons.
East Lake Area Redevelopment
The redevelopment of the whole East Lake area was a unique product of cooperation between government, commercial interests, and social associations. Twenty-five years ago, the East Lake district was one of the highest crime areas in Atlanta. There had been a large public housing project in the East Lake district that was in poor condition and was demolished. See for some more insights on this history.
To be clear, the cohousing project was built on farmland and was not replacing the public housing that was demolished nearby. (See, for example, East Lake Meadow A Public Housing Story, Arizona PBS, 3/24/2020/.) The tragedy of that public housing project does point to the disadvantages of designing housing for one narrow economic class, such as for low income households. Such segregated public housing projects are subject to vacillations of government funds (and their approved designs are not designed for social cohesion). These areas such as the East Lake district were cut off from investment opportunities due to redlining. For more insight into these problems see The Death And Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs (1961).
East Lake Commons was just one part of this revitalization of the area. The community has both home ownership and rental units.
ELC is self managed, and there is a commitment to keep monthly HOA fees affordable. At present, the monthly HOA (Home Owner Association) fees range from $290-330 per month. (These fees maintain the common areas of the community and are in addition to the monthly payments for individual units.) Potential residents are informed of the expectations of participation and consensus decision making.
Common meals are considered the secret sauce of cohousing. For many years, 30-40 residents would attend Sunday community meals 3 times a month. This worked great for a long time with each person volunteering to cook or clean one out of every three meals. However, COVID shut down the common house and the community meals. When it restarted the community meals dropped from 3 to 1 meal per month. Potlucks have been used as a temporary strategy to get community dinners restarted and are still being used. For this reason, the commercial kitchen is underutilized.
The community was better able to withstand Covid than most housing complexes. Outdoor concerts, safe events, help from neighbors, and less stress mitigated the consequences that came with Covid. ELC residents with medical backgrounds formed a Covid task force that made recommendations for the community and helped care for sick residents.
Twenty-five years ago at the start, parents brought their kids to community meetings. The distractions of the children made meetings a bit more noisy but encouraged greater participation. After several years child care was provided in a nearby room in an effort to attract more parents to meetings but it did not increase meeting attendance so was eventually dropped. ELC has struggled with attracting newer residents and families with young children to meetings. People generally volunteer for big events like weddings, funeral services, and birthday parties, but the day to day community participation has steadily decreased over the years and is now a major challenge. It is difficult to ensure members contribute the four-hours per month the community asks of them; there is no system to track community work or any enforcement mechanism. This impacts the bonding that would normally take place when participating in maintenance projects and community meals. A participation task force has been created to encourage community service.
The lack of any selling covenants is a hindrance to integrating new residents into the community. By the time someone wants to leave cohousing (especially if they discovered it’s not for them) they are typically not concerned about the new buyer’s commitment to community values. The larger units bring in a wider audience but the lack of requiring buy-in or education on what cohousing entails means that new community members are likely uninformed or even disinterested in the idea cohousing.
East Lake Commons relationship to the larger community:
Over the years, this community has run summer camps and homeschool groups, organized festivals and big life events, and hosted workshops on pond management, Master Gardener classes, organized live musical performances and end-of-year dinners on the farm. The community is also the location of a 5-acre Gaia Gardens which is a fully functioning farm with tractor, irrigation, the complete infrastructure. The lessee is required to offer residents a CSA option and can also sell to non-residents and local restaurants.The community leases all this for $1/year to a farmer to start an organic farm business or hone their farming skills Gaia Gardens is currently in its 27th year of operation and is on our 6th farmer. At the peak of the prior farmer’s business, the CSA delivered 255 shares and employed 3 full time employees and several part-timers and volunteers. These numbers are lower now because the previous organic farmer has moved onto a bigger project and our new farmer is learning the business. In addition to the greenhouse, there are two hoop houses (high tunnels) purchased with grants that now make it a four-season operation.
Five-acre Gaia Gardens is a real organic farm with tractor, irrigation, & hoop houses. The community leases the farm for $1/year to a farmer required to offer residents a CSA option. The farm also sells to the public & local restaurants.Five-acre Gaia Gardens at East Lake Commons
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.
TCCN is a 501(c)(3) educational organization with a mission…to conduct education, outreach and engagement with individuals and families and Minnesota housing-related organizations, professionals, and government agencies in order to advance the development of high-quality, sustainable cohousing communities in Minnesota.
The Year in Review
In 2023, the all-volunteer nonprofit Twin Cities Cohousing Network (TCCN) continued its theme of “Catalyzing Cohousing in Minnesota.”
The Meet the Professionals lecture series brought to Minnesota audiences two more well-known experts who educate and consult about their cohousing specialties. The Zoom video recordings of the presentations and audience Q&A can be found on TCCN’s YouTube channel.
In addition to the YouTube channel, which showcases recordings of our virtual events, a monthly electronic newsletter, TCCN News, updates subscribers about upcoming cohousing events and information. TCCN also maintains a website, and has a presence on Facebook, Linked In, and uses MeetUp to enable broader communication with our Minnesota audience and beyond.
Despite significant increases in the cost of construction since the pandemic, and the current lack of sufficient housing supply at all price points, TCCN continued to encourage the formation of new cohousing core groups working toward the creation of new cohousing communities. In addition, TCCN worked to network existing cohousing groups to other cohousing groups, and with groups that share the desire to create intentional communities in variations other than the gold-standard-model-of-cohousing developed by Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett.
Finally, TCCN continued its financial support in 2023 to the national nonprofit, Cohousing Association of the United States (CohoUS) and received CohoUS Partnership status. This provided all TCCN supporters who made a gift of $60 or more with access to the many additional educational and networking opportunities, including free and discounted webinars and access to CohousingUS’s online education platform, Cohousing Institute
Cohousing Events
Feb 8“What’s New in Cohousing”
After a brief presentation on the characteristics that make a housing development a cohousing community, representatives from groups working to create cohousing communities in Minnesota gave updates on their progress and challenges; included discussion breakout rooms for participants. Zoom registrations: 62.
May 10 Meet The Professionals: Greg Rosenberg The Need for Permanent Affordability: Community Land Trusts (CLT) and Cohousing
Greg Rosenberg, a creator of cohousing in Wisconsin and expert on community land trusts presented on the potential for the use of land trusts to create and maintain permanently affordable housing, including cohousing communities. Zoom registrations: 84; YouTube views by the end of 2023: 81.
Jul 12 Annual Picnic
An in-person picnic was held at Como Park Picnic Grounds to provide a social gathering for individuals and families with an interest in learning more about cohousing and current efforts to create cohousing communities. Pre-registrations and walk-ons 16.
Aug 21 Conversation with Mary Novak, Executive Director of Riverton Community Housing.
Riverton Community Housing is a nonprofit organization that holds individual apartment buildings organized as cooperatives. Attended by Lynn Englund, Becca Brackett, and Fred Olson.x
Oct 11 Meet The Professionals: Karen Gimnig Top 10 Reasons to Live in Cohousing
Karen Gimnig, facilitation and group process educator and consultant talked about how people benefit from living in cohousing. Zoom registrations: 64; YouTube views by end of 2023: 39.
Board of Directors
TCCN operates with a working board of directors and no paid staff. We are an all-volunteer organization. Each director donates time to govern the organization and also works to develop TCCN’s programs and promote them to the public, and to produce a monthly newsletter. Officers of the Board for 2023 were:
Kathy Ahlers — President and TCCN News editor
Lee Pedersen — Vice president
Becca Brackett — Secretary
Lynn Englund — Treasurer
Other Volunteers
Paul Wehrwein — Event Circle member
Brian PaStarr — Ex-officio
Volunteer Hours
The continuation of our organization is dependent on volunteer time and talents. In 2023, more than 457 volunteer hours were recorded as having been contributed to TCCN by a total of five volunteers. Estimated to have a value of $34.47 per volunteer hour (2023 Value of Volunteer Time Report), TCCN volunteers contributed efforts valued at over $15,750 in 2023. Because it is challenging for volunteers to record every hour volunteered, this value is less than the actual value of time volunteered.
Financial report
Revenues for 2023 totaled $2,528.61. All donations (except $2.05) came from charitable contributions made by generous individual donors. Retained assets of 3,312.38 strengthened our financial position. A total of 11 individual donors contributed $60 or more during 2023 and enjoyed access to CohoUS’s online community partnership program of free online programs and discounted multi-day training courses through The Cohousing Institute and the CohoUS websites.
Expenses totaled $2,009.73 and consisted of program expenses (9%), professional subscriptions and web hosting (11%), CohoUS community partnership for 2024 (37%), business liability insurance (39%), and refunds and fees (3%).
Families, friends, and children are welcome! Come early to play at the park, then socialize in-person with others interested in learning about the characteristics of living in a cohousing community and what it takes to create one.
Bring your favorite picnic foods, beverages and utensilsfor a low-waste event. Share food and beverages with others, if you wish. Register separately for each location so that we can contact you in case of cancelling due to weather.
FREE to attend, Sat. July 20, 2024
Como Park, St. Paul 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM — REGISTER
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. Map of west picnic shelter location.
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 board of Twin Cities Cohousing Network adopted a revised COVID policy on August 11, 2022. Please follow the requests below when attending a TCCN event.
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.)
Housing ownership is a key wealth-building strategy for people in America, and everyone seems to be looking for a greater sense of community where they live.
Cohousing–condo or townhome communities that are collectively designed, built and managed–is a fairly recent addition to the Twin Cities housing landscape.
Learn about local existing and new cohousing initiatives, and get a general overview of what cohousing is, its key benefits, and some variations on the cohousing model. Bring your curiosity and your questions. All are welcome.
Register now for this chance to connect with others seeking a more satisfying, stable and interconnected form of housing.
Wed., Nov. 13, 2019
Optional potluck 6 pm
Program starts at 6:45 pm. Cost to attend is $8.00. Preregistration and payment helps us but is not mandatory. You may pay at the door.
Location: St Frances Cabrini Church
1500 Franklin Ave SE (on the east side of the river)
Minneapolis
Free parking on the east side of the building, and on neighborhood streets.
After a summary of the basic features of cohousing, including short videos, we will cover a capsule history of cohousing in the United States before opening the floor so you can meet folks who have formed core groups for developing their own close-knit cohousing communities. We will end with a round of Cohousing Jeopardy.
Free childcare will be made available but only on advance request. Contact us at twincities@cohousing.org by Nov. 6 to arrange.
Twin Cites Cohousing Network is a 501c(3) organization that educates about cohousing and provides related networking opportunities in the Twin Cities area.
