Intentional, collaborative co-housing is often considered a relative of the communes of the 1960s. Residents actively participate in the design and operation of their communities while maintaining privacy living in their own homes. A community is created that looks after each other and shares facilities such as dining and laundry areas.
COVID-19 and ELDERBERRY & WOLF CREEK COHOUSING
In 2018, Staying Put or Moving On released a short film about senior cohousing called Growing Old Together. The subject is near and dear to many Boomers who have fantasized about recreating the communal housing of the 1960s and 1970s when they lived and shared resources and meals with friends in intentional communities.
Growing Old Together took us to Glacier Circle Community in Davis, CA, the oldest co-housing community in the United States and then north to Grass Valley, CA, where Wolf Creek Lodge cohousing nestles in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Elderberry Cohousing Community is in rural North Carolina, but not far from Durham. This tight-knit community shares resources, chickens and a vegetable garden with miles of hiking nearby. And like the other cohousing communities, they share a Common House with a kitchen and dining area for shared meals and meetings.
The residents of all three communities live active, independent lives and work together to achieve consensus on decisions that would impact all of them. But like so many of us, these well-intentioned, intentional communities hadn’t planned for Covid-19.
We had Zoom conversations with Elderberry Cohousing and Wolf Creek Lodge in May 2020 to see how – and what they were doing – during the pandemic. Both groups have valuable insights on how they’re dealing with the crisis.
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