About our housing co-operative

When the Cohousing Co-operative was founded in 1991, we chose a Danish village housing model, cohousing, as the preferred housing model. Not all cohousing developments are co-operatives, and not all housing co-operatives are cohousing, but ours is both.

Our History

The co-op formed in the early 90s out of common funds from the group who went on to build the Cascades Cohousing strata title project, about 300 metres away. Both groups had a strong commitment to consensus decision making, as learned in non-violent action (NVA) workshops in environmental protest groups (Franklin River era). Originally the co-op was called Rural Cohousing Co-operative Society Ltd, with Rural being later dropped.

The co-op was part of the Community Housing sector begun by the Hawke-Keating government to create a broader third sector of housing which did not exist with any depth in Australia: housing run by councils, churches, charities and resident managed co-operatives. It took a decade for our co-op to become fully funded, and thus build a cohousing style project at 201 Strickland Ave. In April 2000, we moved in.

The original Cohousing Co-operative attempted to purchase the Conningham Camp site but was unsuccessful. During this time the members of the co-operative separated into two groups — those who wished to pursue a rural option and those who wanted to live in town. The urban group unsuccessfully attempted to secure funding from Housing Tasmania to purchase sites in Cascade Cohousing.

Several potential sites were explored, including the old nursery site at Pottery Rd, Lenah Valley; Ridgeway; an old quarry in Lenah Valley; and a site at Salamanca. A site near Ispahan St in Macquarie Street was chosen which had the advantage of being owned by the State Government. The arrangement was to have been that it would be transferred to the co-operative as part of our funding packaging rather than purchased outright. At this stage, the architects did the preliminary plans in order to secure council approval. Unfortunately there was a state election, a change in government, and this ‘gentleman’s agreement’ was dropped. A block in Strickland Ave was investigated, however, it was sold before the co-operative could even start the process of securing the in-principle council approval required by Housing Tasmania to release funds. Another block at 201 Strickland Ave was found and the owner was approached but the land was not on the market, and he was not interested in selling it.

By now it was beginning to seem like the cohousing project was impossible, and the co-operative decided to ‘spot purchase’ separate dwellings. The co-operative decided to buy a house at this time, at 329 Strickland Ave. Then the news came that the owner of the land at 201 Strickland Ave might be interested in selling after all. There was a slump in the real estate market and prices were low. Council gave in-principle approval for the development, Housing Tasmania started negotiated with the owner, and in 1998 the Cohousing Co-operative became the owners of the property at 201 Strickland Ave. At this time the house at 329 Strickland Ave was sold and another one was bought in Ferntree, which as of 2024 the co-op still owns.
Then began the long process of being property developers. First, Housing Tasmania had to tender for architects. James Morrison & Yvette Breytenbach were duly appointed. That was followed by lots of meetings, all together and one on one, with the architects (who had a baby during this time). A major difficulty was deciding where to cut the costs. The co-operative was committed to energy efficient, low-toxicity houses, so weren’t prepared to cut costs on insulation or solid timber. Expenses were reduced by using cheap window frames, ovens and toilets (which could be replaced later), and using ‘sweat equity’ for painting and landscaping (doing it ourselves).
The planning approval was made easier by the fact that Cascade Cohousing had been developed in the same local government area a few years before.
When the plans were finished, and approved by council, Housing Tasmania tendered for builders. The contract was awarded to Maverick Builders. Building took 6 months and in March 2000 the first members started moving in.
Our ‘cohousing’ is the twelve houses and commonhouse at 201-203 Strickland Avenue and the social interactions that the development is designed to facilitate. The dwellings range in size from two to five bedrooms, and the commonhouse contains a dining room, kitchen, lounge / meeting area, common laundry, guest flat and office.

Features of our Cohousing include:
·     common facilities for eating together
·     an office
·     Blue Foods food co-op
·     common areas between the houses
·      common area down the back
·      commonmeals
·      working bees in the common areas
·      front porches facing the common areas

The layout follows a classic cohousing street and courtyard design, with the common carpark at the entry to the property and the commonhouse between the carpark and the dwellings. The overall design allows for ‘happenstance’ or ‘by the way’ meetings between residents, and the effect is of a village-like streetscape without cars and where children can play under kitchen-sink supervision.

The interface between the houses and the common areas is a design feature of cohousing, meaning what happens in front gardens (eg fencing) is different to what happens in back gardens. The front-facing house areas are part private and part public, common-ish. The back yards are private.

Having the kitchen sinks look out over the common areas is another cohousing design feature applied to most of the individual houses, as is putting the car park on the outside of the site to have a people-friendly car free environment inside, and the way people are channelled through common areas to increase incidental interaction on the way to the houses.

A co-operative is a mutual organisation

A co-op has a purpose, members contribute to the achievement of the purpose, and in return receive the benefits created by that purpose, the benefits of co-operative membership. The purpose of the Cohousing Co-operative, as per the Primary Activity in our Rules, is:

“to provide resident managed-housing within cohousing projects or community housing programmes, for people on the basis of a signed residency subscription, who are in need of low cost accommodation to relieve their housing situation due to low income, poor community support, chronic illness, distress, misfortune, destitution or poverty.”

A co-operative has Active Membership requirements

The Active Membership requirements which define the required member contribution, are in the Rules in Appendix 2 Part 3:

Members of the Coop are active where they -

(a) are financially contributing a residency subscription as described in a signed residency agreement to reside in the Coop’s managed or controlled premises in line with Primary Activity of the Coop and have no outstanding subscriptions of more than one month; or

(b) have signed a residential tenancy lease agreement with the Coop for Co-op managed premises and have no outstanding rental arrears on that lease agreement of more than one month.

Membership

The Rules provide for a person to become a member and for membership to cease in certain situations. All members must be Active Members. If a person ceases to be an Active Member the co-op board is obliged to cancel the person’s membership.

The process to become a member commences with a period of being an “applicant for membership”. That period lasts at least one year during which time the person is a not a member of the co-op and does not own a share.

Each member has a $1 share and in 2022 there were 24 shares. This is the current member equity in the co-operative. No dividends are paid because the co-operative is a non-distributing co-operative, a form of non-profit business

The titles to the properties are held by the co-op. The majority of the equity in the properties is owned by the co-op. The income from the residency subscriptions or rent from the properties goes into the co-op bank account and is applied to rates, insurance, maintenance and the like.

All members have a Residential Subscription Agreement with the co-op entitling them to reside in a dwelling and requiring them, amongst other things, to pay a Residency Subscription.

The reason it is called a Residency Subscription (rather than rent) is because of the mutual nature of a co-op. Members pay a subscription as a part of the Active Membership requirements and in return have access to the benefits of membership (secure, affordable housing). This is very different to a landlord-tenant relationship where entitlements are not based on a mutual relationship but an imbalanced market model.