Concept
To summarize our idea: to be able to lead a self-determined life, individually and independently but integrated into a neighborhood community.
How do we implement this? Ideally self-organized community project. This requires a lot of commitment from everyone involved. Everyone contributes according to their range of skills and talents.
Cohousing for us means:
We each have separate individual apartments and shared areas,. We also have guest apartments for our numerous visitors.
We value and respect our need for privacy.
We meet weekly as a whole community to exchange ideas and talk about any pending decisions.
In our day-to-day life, we keep in touch with each other in a variety of ways: through informal conversations, in-depth discussions, working together on a project, cooking, eating, playing, and other joint activities. To this end, individual prior agreements are made.
Support in case of illness and need for assistance
As direct neighbors, we notice when help is needed in the event of illness or in an emergency. Long-term support can only be met on an individual basis with professional outpatient help.
There are a variety to ways of organizing community projects with their corresponding legal structures. We have opted for a registered cooperative. Our cooperative model A cooperative model is neither a rental nor an ownership model, but emphasizes the community character of a project. The people involved invest their own capital in a cooperative of which they are shareholders. The cooperative leases or acquires a suitable property with its own capital in the form of shares held by people involved. Additional contributions and private loans from members and supporters and eventualy bank loans are necessary. The deposits and loans bear interest and are repaid when a project is cancelled or terminated. The project participants pay a monthly fee for the operating costs, for interest and repayment, maintenance and reserve funds. Each member of the cooperative has one vote at the cooperative assembly, which decides on the principles. The day-to-day business is managed by an honorary Board of Directors.