AARP Eye Center
If you're a baby-boomer, you probably have been through or are going through the experience of helping out your aging parents. The traditional senior housing options for them included gated retirement communities, assisted living "facilities" and nursing homes. Many of us boomers have been seeking an alternative to those options, while at the same time realizing that living alone in a house or apartment as we age is not a wise choice, either. Enter "the new kid on the block": co-housing. It's a concept that's been around a long time in Europe, but is still relatively new in the U.S. But it's a trend that is gaining momentum. The Cohousing Association of the United States recently reported that there are now 160 functioning co-housing communities, and 130 in the process of being built. To date, about a dozen of those 160 are senior projects. Co-housing isn't for everone, but it's a viable option for many, and worth a look. If you'd like to find out more AARP has several good introductory articles. I recommend starting with "Aging Better Together" by Anne P. Glass.
Thanks for reading and I hope this gives you some food for thought.
A REALLY GREAT BOOK ABOUT COHOUSING!
This covers all different kinds of "intentional communities" from cohousing to ecovillages to house-sharing. I have been following it very closely as the model in the formation of the Guanajuato cohousing community. It includes stories of success and failure, and, more importantly the WHYs. It's not just for someone who is trying to form a community, but has good advice for those LOOKING for one, too.
"Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities" by Diana Leafe Christian. You can download it free as a PDF or find it for sale on the web.
Another good read: "With a LIttle Help from our Friends: Creating Community as We Grow Older" by Beth Baker. It covers LOTS of possible options from cohousing to cooperatives, house-sharing to programs designed to assist those who decide to live alone, but with a neighborhood or apartment "network".
Lots of information out there, folks! Go get it!!
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