the Greater Nomadic Council

Co-Operation

For the curious, it seems likely that this will be where I’m living next year (in Summit House, apparently the larger and quieter of the two houses). It will be strange to return to life in a co-op, but there’s really no other practical solution for me to find a place without a pricey, otherwise pointless flight back to Iowa City. More importantly, I’m genuinely curious to see a co-op system different from the young, chaotic and populous examples in Austin – in this system, apparently most of the residents will actually be older than me, so hopefully that means I get to be the messy one for once. Read on to learn a little more about co-ops.

In looking for links to provide background to this post, I’ve been somewhat astonished to find a dearth of resources describing the principles and practices that have been the frame for such a large part of my life. The best rundown comes courtesy of North American Students of Cooperation, a nonprofit with a specifically educational mandate which is the largest umbrella organization for college-town housing coops. These are, notably, different in purpose and especially tone from the large urban coops which are essentially glorified condos and serve mainly to save residents money, while leaving their lives at a relatively normal degree of separation. The coops I’ve grown up with are designed to change residents’ lifestyles, promote efficiency by allowing them to share both facilities and cleaning tasks, and provide an intentional, controlled community of individuals, either like-minded or, depending on the individual system, not.

There are hundreds of small co-ops across the country with thousands of residents. Most are centered in college towns, and even there it can often seem like the co-op ideology has a tenuous hold. For all the annoyances I encountered when living in a deeply flawed coop system (which has since turned itself around markedly), I found the experience life-changing, and it’s a bit disheartening to see that there aren’t more and better organized efforts to promote cooperation as a viable lifestyle choice outside of traditional college enclaves. There are some, though: The newly formed Cooperative Housing Coalition is working to monitor and support coop-related legislation, while NASCO is the most successful organization at promoting the construction of new coops. As might be easily inferred from the sometimes squalid conditions of Austin coops, cooperative principles are prone to thrive under straitened economic circumstances, which CHF International is promoting.

Related: Co-Housing is sort of like co-ops for the middle-aged, consisting of groups of adjacent houses intended to mimic small-town life. I’m not terribly familiar with it, and I’m sure the overt principles are noble, but I’m inclined to reflexively disparage it as a trendy dalliance of those who are mostly white, wealthy, and particularly guilty about their indulgent lifestyles.