Richmond Cohousing is an intergenerational community of 26 residents. The L-shaped apartment building has 19 units including 2 rentals owned by current cohousers. Located in the walkable and bikeable neighborhood of Manchester in the city of Richmond, Virginia, the building includes a large common space on the first floor for cooking and dining together, along with a dedicated children’s room, and a rooftop deck for outdoor play, socials, and container gardening.

Comprised of one-, two- and three-bedroom units (ranging in size from 590 sf to 1380 sf) on four floors, construction started in Spring 2019 and move-in was a year later. It took 5 years for a group of 15 interested people to find the ideal site and ideal partner. In 2018, the small group was able to convince a developer who had bought the land and was planning to build an apartment building to partner with them and develop a cohousing community. The developer agreed to do it if 10 units were pre-sold , and indeed 10 were pre-sold in a week!

With that partnership model, the developer could handle the required financing and manage the risk on the cohousing group. By having enough committed buyers, the project evolved from condos to cohousing. The building is set up as a condominium association and every cohouser is a member of the cohousing association.

The decision-making process chosen by the community is a modified consensus using fingers (zero to five) to show one’s level of support. It helps everyone to feel heard even if they don’t fully support the decision. Decisions require an average of 3.5 fingers for an agreement to pass.

As the community was established at the beginning of COVID-19, this reality became a defining factor in how to make things work in the midst of a pandemic.

Words of advice from one of the founders involved early on: “start first with community development and community building before you move to housing.”

More information at Richmond Cohousing