Our dream of building Silver Birch Village is moving forward!
We have successfully made an offer on a property. We are currently doing the due diligence necessary to finalize the land purchase and take one more step toward the completion of Silver Birch Village.
We have made other strides by incorporating as a not-for-profit development corporation – The Greater Sudbury Seniors Cohousing Development Corporation.
The function of that corporation is to be the development entity that actually designs and builds the community. Once complete, ownership will be transferred to the group’s operating structure.
The original intent was to have our ownership model as one of private-unit ownership andjoint (strata) ownership of land and common facilities – similar to condominium ownership.
We have moved away from that model for a few reasons:
- First, the escalating cost of development and construction are making that model increasingly difficult to obtain. Member households were all intending to take the equity from their existing homes and use it to purchase their unit.
- A second consideration is that there is more availability of funding for other models of affordable housing and a lack of any type of incentives or funding for privately owned / condo style property.
For these reasons, we have decided to adopt a cooperative housing model. The co-op will act as the mortgage or funding holder for the property, and the members will pay rent to the co-op.
The co-op will use that rent to cover mortgage costs, build a capital reserve fund, and cover operating expenses for the complex. For the members, it means that rather than invest their existing home equity into the purchase of a cohousing unit, they will retain that equity.
Our goal is to build a community together where we can grow older without the social isolation that plagues most seniors and affects their health and well being.
If you are interested in shaping a meaningful, community-based senior lifestyle and learning more, join us for our Introduction to Cohousing Zoom session on June 8th at 11:00. To register, contact ann.frampton@gmail.com.