The Senior Cohousing Handbook - 2nd Edition: A Community Approach to Independent Living

by Charles Durrett

Overview

How to make your senior years healthy, safe, social, and stimulating.

"Architect and author Chuck Durrett's recently released book Senior Cohousing Handbook comes at a time of high interest in greening, sustainable housing and affordable living concerns. Durrett's new book is a comprehensive guide for baby boomers wishing to continue vibrant, active lifestyles." - EPR Real Estate News

"Make your senior years safe and socially fun with the idea of senior cohousing and a book on the topic that shows how seniors can custom-build their neighborhood to fit their needs. This is housing built by seniors, not for them, and emphasizes independence and social networking. Any library strong in gerontology or social science and many a general lending library needs this. - James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review

"As a Baby Boomer, I've joked for a few years that we'll all end up living communally again because Social Security will be broke...This is one of the better ways to envision it."— Sacramento Bee

No matter how rich life is in youth and middle age, the elder years can bring on increasing isolation and loneliness as social connections lessen, especially if friends and family members move away.

Senior cohousing fills a niche for this demographic—the healthy, educated, and proactive adults who want to live in a social and environmentally vibrant community. These seniors are already wanting to ward off the aging process, so they are unlikely to want to live in assisted housing. Senior cohousing revolves around custom-built neighborhoods organized by the seniors themselves in order to fit in with their real needs, wants, and aspirations for health, longevity, and quality of life.

Senior Cohousing is a comprehensive guide to joining or creating a cohousing project, written by the US leader in the field. The author deals with all the psychological and logistical aspects of senior cohousing and addresses common concerns, fears, and misunderstandings. He emphasizes the many positive benefits of cohousing, including:

• Better physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health
• Friendships and accessible social contact
• Safety and security
• Affordability
• Shared resources

Successful aging requires control of one’s life, and today's generation of seniors—the baby boomers—will find that this book holds a compelling vision for their future.

Charles Durrett is a principal at McCamant & Durrett in Nevada City, California, a firm that specializes in affordable cohousing. He co-authored the groundbreaking Cohousing with his wife and business partner, Kathryn McCamant.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865716117
Publisher:	New Society Publishers
Publication date:	05/01/2009
Series:	Senior Cohousing Handbook: A Community Approach to Independent
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	583,867
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.64(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Charles Durrett is the principal at McCamant & Durrett, a firm that specializes in affordable and community-based multi-family housing and cohousing. He has consulted on or designed over fifty cohousing communities internationally and lives in Nevada City, California. He co-authored the groundbreaking Cohousing with his wife and business partner Kathryn McCamant.

Table of Contents

Prologue byWilliamH.Thomas,M.D
Foreword by Patch Adams,M.D
Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part One: Introducing Senior Cohousing
1. Taking Charge of the Rest of Your Life
2. Cohousing: An Old Idea—A Contemporary Approach
3. Senior Cohousing: A Proven Approach—A New Application

Part Two: Senior Cohousing in Denmark : An Inside Look
4. Munksøgård: Strong Roots in Fertile Soil
5. Other Danish Senior Cohousing Communities: Otium,Gimle,Mariendalsvej, Korvetten

Part Three: Creating a Senior Cohousing Community
6. Feasibility: DoWe Have a Project?
7. Study Group I: Aging Successfully/Aging in Place
8. Study Group II: The Participatory Design Process
9. Study Group III: Policy

Part Four: The First Wave — Pioneering Senior Cohousing in America: The Beginnings of an American Movement
10.The First Wave
11.Where Do We Go From Here?

Appendix A: Anne Glass: Research-Based Results,"Why Aging in Community?"
Appendix B: Frequently Asked Questions
Appendix C: Economic Structures
Appendix D: Universal Design

Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Dive right into this book and be enriched by the insights and the wisdom you will find there. I'm not kidding.Go.Now.Your future is waiting for you."
— Bill Thomas,MD, from the Prologue

"Charles Durrett has written a book inviting an exciting eldership....Wouldn't it be great if every step of life had such thoughtful design."
— Patch Adams,MD, from the Foreword

"The key to living a long, healthy life is community—having a group of people who know and care about you with whom you socialize at least onc" a week.This book shows you how seniors all over the world are combating isolation and loneliness by building healthy communities. Viva the community! Long life! Honey in the heart."
— Eric Utne is the founder of Utne Reader .

"Quality of life is more and more important in the last part of our life, and there is no need to live out our later years alone or lonely. Aging in place—in community—is an opportunity waiting for development; and cohousing—the most creative housing option for seniors —is one that we can make happen for us NOW, if we, as Chuck Durrett says, "Go forth and be one with [our] own future."
— Bolton and Lisa Anthony, Senior activists, and founders of Second Journey

"As a long time developer of housing and a resident of Silver Sage Cohousing, I can't imagine any way to live that makes more of our opportunities or quality of life and living lighter on the planet. Chuck's book captures all that and enables our potential as proactive seniors."
— Jim Leach,Housing Developer and Senior Cohousing resident