Cohousing’s Intentional Lifestyle Gains Appeal Among Seniors

Have you ever asked yourself, “Where do I want to live as I grow older?” The answer may have changed since the start of the pandemic. Then ask yourself, “If I were to become single or widowed, where would I want to live?”

These are challenging questions that some of us would rather put on the back burner – or, frankly, off “the stove” altogether. It’s right up there with least-favorite topics along with questions about making a will or purchasing a burial plot.

Baby Boomers, the current generation facing these questions, want to remain independent for as long as possible. As the number of households aged 65 and over increased by more than a million each year since 2014, there is solid evidence of many people nearing retirement wanting to stay in their existing surroundings, even renovating the home to be more accessible for years to come.

While staying put has many advantages, there are a variety of alternative living options that could work – many requiring people to put down a large security deposit (typically returned after departing the facility). One mostly affordable alternative that is growing in interest is senior cohousing, where people aged 55+ live within a condo setting and share duties and responsibilities within the community.

You’ve heard of “aging in place.” Well, this is more like “aging with friends.”

Cohousing has been in the U.S. since the 1990s and got its start in Denmark nearly 50 years ago. The idea of cohousing allows people to have their independence while sharing a cooperative-based, intentional lifestyle and holding common interests and values.

While cohousing is generally open to all – young and old, with or without children – there is a growing interest in establishing more senior communities. Out of some 300 cohousing settings in the country, there are unofficially 20 senior-focused communities either established or under construction.

“Very few people over 65 are involved in senior cohousing,” notes Dr. Rick Moody, Director of Academic Affairs for AARP. “But many people talk about the idea of living in close proximity with friends, relatives, and so forth.”

The oldest senior cohousing community in the U.S. was established in 2006 in Davis, Calif. The idea for Glacier Circle Community developed among people who attended the same church and were in their 70s and 80s. There are eight units with shared amenities.

Washington state’s only known senior cohousing community, Quimper Village in Port Townsend, started with 20 people participating in a series of workshops on aging. Among the guest speakers were Kate McCamant and Charles Durrett, the pair that brought the concept of cohousing to the States after their visit to Denmark. The workshop discussion generated enough interest from some attendees to develop their own cohousing community, built and designed by none other than McCamant & Durrett Architects.

Among the aims of senior cohousing is to promote greater social engagement, building a common set of priorities for the community, and living in a generally affordable, welcoming environment. In a newspaper interview, Durrett put into context the benefits of cohousing:

“These communities are filled with individuals who are choosing to take control of their destinies through planning, not leaving things up to chance. For instance, accommodations are made for shared caregivers to live on site, and long-term mobility and access issues are examined. Just the process of thinking things through as a group changes cohousing participants, preparing them with realistic views of their future.”

Some senior cohousing is comprised of traditional condominium buildings while others offer individual single-story houses on a shared plot. All communities have a common house with a kitchen and spaces for meetings and socializing.

In our crazy-Covid world, many seniors can become lonely, depressed and sometimes turn to alcohol or develop a bad diet to overcome boredom. In a cohousing setting, residents share a cooperative lifestyle that looks after one another and assists when some cannot help themselves. Some communities hire in-home care for those in critical need.

The cohousing concept also aims to save people from financial strains. Through the sharing of food, energy, maintenance upkeep and other expenses, households can save as much as $70,000 in a typical low-market cohousing community, according to Durrett, author of The Senior Cohousing Handbook.

Buying a cohousing unit can be like purchasing a traditional condo. There are financing options available, though most lenders will offer a higher-than-normal interest rate to account for the increased risk of the community arrangements. Some communities lease the homes to members.

Established in 2017, Quimper Village is a self-governing condo community with 41 residents living in 28 homes on six acres. When one of the original members decided this year to move, he received two dozen inquiries to buy his home and join the community – a sign of the popularity of this special living option.

‘Senior cohousing really represents in some ways a utopian effort,” says Moody of AARP. “It probably will never become a mass movement, but it certainly has some attractions that are very different from continuing care retirement communities [and] … I see a future where the CCRs perhaps begin to learn some lessons from the senior cohousing world.”


Helpful Resources

Cohousing US

Canadian Cohousing Network

Cohousing Solutions

The Cohousing Company

Cohousing Development Consulting

StayorMove.org


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