Living arrangements designed to encourage social interaction and provide shared facilities can lower the cost of living and build more friendly, supportive neighborhoods.

In a piece for Strong Towns, Emma Avery describes the potential of ‘cohousing:’ housing arrangements with shared amenities that bring down housing costs for residents and create more opportunities for social interactions.
Residents of cohousing projects, Avery explains, “own their private units, but share extensive common spaces. They commit to regular community activities, like meals, and manage the building together.”
Avery highlights an example from Vancouver, where a group of residents joined with a local developer to build their dream communal community. “Over several years, Happy Cities worked with Our Urban Village (formerly called Tomo House) and the design team to help create a super social building — and then to measure whether residents really did feel more connected after moving into their new home.” Results from resident surveys showed a dramatic reduction in loneliness and isolation and an increase in social connections between neighbors.
Noting the barriers to building this type of housing model, Avery argues that cities should make it easier to develop cohousing. “This means offering public land for affordable, socially connected housing; legalizing more density citywide; providing incentives to encourage social design features and offset the costs; and more.” Bringing social connection back into housing developments and neighborhoods can create more sustainable development patterns, help address the housing crisis, and alleviate the growing ‘loneliness epidemic.’
FULL STORY: Can Cohousing Solve the Housing Crisis and Loneliness Epidemic?

New Florida Law Curbs HOA Power
The legislation seeks to cut down on ‘absurd’ citations for low-level violations.

New Tennessee Law Allows No-Cost Incentives for Affordable Housing
Local governments in the Volunteer State can now offer developers incentives like increased density, lower parking requirements, and priority permitting for affordable housing projects.

Planners’ Complicity in Excessive Traffic Deaths
Professor Wes Marshall’s provocatively-titled new book, "Killed by a Traffic Engineer," has stimulated fierce debates. Are his criticisms justified? Let’s examine the degree that traffic engineers contribute to avoidable traffic deaths.

Study: Housing Crisis is About Affordability, not Supply
New research shows that there is no overall shortage of housing units, but all U.S. metropolitan areas face a severe lack of affordable units for low-income renters.

Are Race-Based Lawsuits Affecting Community Lenders?
Shelterforce spoke with community lending leaders and experts about the current mood across the sector. What, if anything, are organizations doing to avoid becoming the next target of conservative activists?

New Park Promotes Community and Connectivity in Lewisville, Texas
The city of Lewisville just celebrated the opening of Glory Park/Parque la Gloria, helping to improve park access and the quality of life for residents.
City of Madera
City of Santa Clarita
Borough of Carlisle
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Colorado Energy Office
Pima County Community College District
City of Piedmont, CA
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.