• We are forming a shared living / shared ownership
household for people with a commitment to progressive social change.
• We envision creating an informal community, with a mix
of shared and private spaces and some shared
meals and other group
activities.
• We operate from a base of values that include
transparency, honesty, democracy,
and respect
for people and the
planet.
• We are working to reduce buy-in costs and
create an affordable alternative to renting and conventional home ownership.
• The house,
located at 2839 Ashby Ave., Berkeley Elmwood, is half owned by the organizer,
Jon Katz
There will be an open house and general meeting at 2839 Ashby at 2:00
pm, Sunday August 16th. Please contact
us for more specific information, or sign up for EBCOHO meet-up notices on
their web site.
We
are working with the East
Bay Co-Housing Network and Bay Area Community
Land Trust to explore possible cooperative ownership structures, including
Resident Operated Nonprofit, Limited Equity Housing
Co-op, and Tenancy In Common models. The final choice will depend largely on
the financial resources we can identify in the coming weeks. Berkeley Elmwood is a beautiful but already
heavily gentrified (and expensive) neighbourhood, and developing a viable financial plan <link> has been a real
challenge. It is unlikely that we will
be able to reduce monthly payments below the current market value for Elmwood shared
housing, which is around $1500 for a large room with private bath, and $1100
for a medium room with shared bath. We
are operating on a very tight time frame, so please contact us soon if
you’re interested
EBCOHO
coach Raines Cohen:
“We call this ‘cohouseholding’ but it could take the form of a co-op or
Tenants in Common (TIC) co-ownership or something more creative. Since Jon owns
half of this beautiful, spacious house, and both he and it have a long
history of cooperative community living, this has the potential to be much easier and more affordable than starting from scratch
and buying a whole home on the open market. This will still come down to
collective purchase of a half share of a Berkeley home, at market prices. But
with the right group splitting it up in the right way, it may be more
accessible than most area home ownership opportunities.”
TIMELINE
- August 16
(Sunday), 2:00 - 4:00pm : General Meeting at 2839 Ashby
- September
1: Residents core group identified
- September
15: Ownership structure decided
- October
1: Detailed financial plan in place
About
Jon Katz, organizer:
Jon spends most of his time in El Limon, Dominican Republic: a village of 85
hardscrabble farm families, a community-based non-profit, and him at the end of
a dirt road. He works with many villages on participatory technology projects,
particularly micro-hydro electrification, wireless internet access, and soon tele-health. His housing experience includes the New York
squatter movement of the 1970’s, various cooperative housing ventures, and a
stint as a rather unconventional plumbing contractor. For Jon, the co-op would
be a US fallback base and a way to maintain his
sentimental, political, and artistic family connections with the house.
