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Cohousing and Wellbeing

Gradient Ocean

Al Rezoski

Aug 30, 2022

Spain

Categories:

Housing, Health, Mental Health, Affordable Housing, Community, Wellbeing

Public Health Reviews, a Swiss website, reported in an October 6, 2020, scoping article on the findings of Spanish researchers and their effects on people's health and well-being. The results are fascinating.


Cohousing is an intentional community of private homes clustered around a shared space that forms a collective. You can find this housing community-type in Europe, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and even Uruguay, but the term originated in Denmark in the late 1960s.


Each home has amenities such as a private kitchen. Shared spaces include a common building that has a large kitchen and dining area, laundry, and recreational spaces. Shared outdoor space usually includes parking, walkways, open space, and gardens. Neighbors may share resources, such as food, and equipment, such as tools. Cohousing generally results in better land management as there is more preservation of the natural landscape and a smaller footprint for buildings and access. Cohousing collectives can cost less to build than comparable housing choices too.


The Spanish researchers reviewed 25 full-text articles, which looked at 77 cohousing sites. Specifically, ten articles reviewed cohousing's impact on a resident's quality of life and well-being. Eight of the ten studies found a positive association. Another 22 studies studied factors including social support, a sense of community, and physical, emotional, and economic security. Most of the studies found a positive association too.


The thought is that cohousing increases social interaction, fosters lively social networks, and can decrease financial stress (housing is less expensive than similar types), leading to a better quality of life and well-being. More research is needed. There is interest in the public health field because social isolation and loneliness are recognized public health problems in different parts of the world.


It raises a thought-provoking question. Do our housing choices create loneliness and isolation? Think of your community and instances where people live alone with little social interaction or support. One example is the elderly neighbor down the road who lost their spouse and lives alone. Another is the foreign-language immigrant couple, isolated by the language barrier.


Does the design of our homes stifle interaction with our neighbors? Consider the house designed with the front dominated by garage doors. How many of us drive into our garages, closing them behind us, shutting the world out? Have you ever struggled to look out your house or apartment to see what was happening in the surrounding community? Perhaps, the windows did not face in a direction that made it easy to see what was happening outside. Have you experienced apartment living with long hallways double-loaded with blank doors where the only interaction with your neighbors is a chance encounter in the hallway or elevator?


The average household size has declined consistently over the past few decades, and intergenerational living is declining. The COVID pandemic has exacerbated the effect, and it is not coincidental that pet ownership has been on the rise too. Seattle, Washington, USA, has one of the highest dog ownership rates in the world, 246.67 dogs per 1,000 residents, according to Pawlicy.com. Social isolation affects all age groups, races, and ethnicities worldwide. And, it appears that it adversely affects our well-being.


Here are some suggestions to help you make a difference in your community.

Most of us cannot build a cohousing community; however, we can take aspects of cohousing and integrate them into our neighborhoods, whether it be physical improvements or programming activities. Community gardens, front-yard gardening with shared vegetable and fruit planting, small dog parks, community toolsheds, neighborhood directories, community bike facilities and bike sharing, kitchen sharing, installing community cooking facilities in parks (such as sinks and grills), installing wider sidewalks and benches for ambling and sitting in the neighborhood, flower gardening co-ops, outdoor movies, community language, and cooking classes are some examples of getting people out of their homes and connecting them with shared experiences and random encounters.

These elements and activities can work in multi-family complexes, too, such as apartment buildings.

Ask your local elected officials to allow cohousing if they do not do so already. It could be a viable addition to affordable housing options in your community. Your hometown leaders may consider adding design guidelines encouraging cohousing design elements in single and multi-family neighborhoods.


Many people will resist because of personal preferences or, perhaps, fear. If that is the case in your neighborhood, don't try to force fit a solution. Instead, institute some of these changes with your living space and property, find one or two other kindred neighbors, and build from there if it warrants. For example, it is easy to turn front yard space into a small community flower garden worked by a few neighbors. Share the flowers with your elderly neighbors and invite them to join you. It may grow into something bigger.


Change is possible.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.

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Catalog #:

0822.103.02.083022

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