Anyone Live In A Housing Co-Op?

[Tufnel]

I'm considering living in a housing co-op wherever I do my PhD. The advantages are rather obvious. Insta-community, generally receptive to lefty vegetarians, etc. And while it doesn't seem like they are much, if any, cheaper than an apartment, the ability to have a say in the governance of my housing unit is appealing.

If anyone has any experience with co-ops, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I don't have any substantive questions, I'm fishing more than anything. What should I know about co-ops before jumping in? What disadvantages am I missing? Will it interfere with my work? Social life? I don't quite know what to expect.

Edited February 8, 2011 by Tufnel

[awvish]

I'm considering living in a housing co-op wherever I do my PhD. The advantages are rather obvious. Insta-community, generally receptive to lefty vegetarians, etc. And while it doesn't seem like they are much, if any, cheaper than an apartment, the ability to have a say in the governance of my housing unit is appealing.

If anyone has any experience with co-ops, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I don't have any substantive questions, I'm fishing more than anything. What should I know about co-ops before jumping in? What disadvantages am I missing? Will it interfere with my work? Social life? I don't quite know what to expect.

I lived in a co-op for nearly two years of undergrad (lived in an insta-community-type arts dorm for almost two years, and in a general purpose dorm for a year), and it was by *far* my favorite type of housing. It was an old, three-story house owned by the university, and there were 18 of us who lived there. We had house meetings every week, a 5-night-per-week mealplan, weekly chores, and occasional parties. I found the highest concentration of good friends there (as a vegetarian lefty, when I get the chance and with rare exceptions to both categories)--more longlasting friendships from people I met in that house than in the rest of my time as an undergrad combined. Now, I'm a bit studious and don't get out much, so that's a bit skewed as a statistic, but it's still telling anecdotally.

We had problems--alarm clocks waking each other up, pot smoke affecting straightedge residents, early-to-bedders vs. beerpong-on-Tuesdayers, etc. Generally, though, it was pretty peaceful. Disadvantages are that it's hard to shift a group dynamic, the house tends (or at least tended) to get messy and grouchy around exam time, and you have to deal with things like heaters breaking and toilets malfunctioning yourself. In places with mealplan, you have to plan meals and cook (even when you're stressed out), and everyone tends to get really touchy and sleep-deprived at the same time.

In general, though, I'd really recommend a co-op if you think you can deal with the close quarters. It's also good to be aware that you'll need to be ready to make concessions to people (e.g. if you smoke weed, you need to make sure that you don't disturb those who are uncomfortable with it--and if you're not comfortable with it, you need to be ready to acknowledge that some people will smell like it, even if they make sure the smoke doesn't get in the house (this was an ongoing battle for a semester in the house I was in). In fact, I'd recommend it so much that I'm looking for co-ops to apply to next fall--anyone know anything about the UT Austin and environs co-ops?

Any more specific questions you have, feel free to pm me, or post on here. Finally, a topic on which I can be helpful!

[Kathiza]

I don't really know what a Housing Co-Op is, but I've been living in a dorm for seven years now and I LOVE IT! I love the community. I love how I can live together with people from all different parts of the world. I love to cook together. I love the parties. I love that there's always somebody around if I want company and that I can close my door and have some time in peace if I want to. I've never lived in my own appartment and I'd love to live in a similar setting as a PhD student as well.

[Strangefox]

By the way, what IS a co-op? I mean, I understand it now more or less but I would like an exact definition

[awvish]

By the way, what IS a co-op? I mean, I understand it now more or less but I would like an exact definition

A co-op is a house (owned by a group with a buy-in to live there, by an individual, or by an external organization like a university) in which many people live 'family style', with single or double-occupancy rooms, sharing bathrooms, laundry facilities, kitchen facilities, and varying degrees of maintenance costs. Often houses have official themes (grad student, international students, rock climbing) or ideological associations (Quaker, vegan, Libertarian). It's common to have unofficial ideological overlap among members (whole foods, vegetarianism, left wing, political activism...they tend towards leftism but are very welcoming of outliers in my experience). It's also common to have a shared mealplan (a monthly food buy-in and a regular cooking obligation), and it's very common for this to be vegetarian or sometimes vegan.

That's a lot of parentheses. But I'd say that's a pretty good definition of a co-op.

[Strangefox]

That's a lot of parentheses. But I'd say that's a pretty good definition of a co-op.

Thanks!!!

[riceandbeans]

I lived in a coop for a year in college, and considered living in one now that I'm in grad school. My experience in undergrad was pretty good. Great people, awesome food, someone was pretty much always around if you wanted human contact (even if it was just to site in silence at 10am on a Sat with lots of coffee and scrambled eggs trying to recover from a hangover), and I really enjoyed working together with a group of people to make the house a nice place to live, both in terms of physical stuff and inter-personal relations. We did have some minor issues (dinners were vegan and but there was a dairy fridge for the vegetarians, and we had a several week debate about whether or not it was ok to add cheese to the vegan dinner if you weren't vegan), we wound up with some interesting decorations (think ~100 origami cranes hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen), and it does require a surprising time investment. You will want to be home for dinner (which take a lot longer than eating by yourself), you will have to spend time cleaning every week, there are house meetings (and any disagreements will make these run a long time, especially if you are doing things conflict resolution style or require unanimous consent to make changes to house policies), parties will occur when it's not convenient for you, and be prepared to share everything. But the payout in terms of house community totally outweighed all of the downsides, at least for me. Now that I'm in grad school, I did decide to not live in a coop, but that was mostly because at this point in my life I wanted a level of privacy that just wouldn't be possible in a coop setting.

I would say that if you are a pretty easy going person or willing to sacrifice some stuff in order live in a group setting, then seriously look into coops. But I would suggest that you look for ones with an interview process (it makes it more likely that the house gets along well), and clearly defined rules about everything from chores to inter-personal conflicts.

Edited February 9, 2011 by riceandbeans

[Tufnel]

Thanks for the replies. It sounds great. I'm definitely easy-going, so much so that my main concern is whether or not I'll feel tied down by the time cost (dinners, meetings, etc).

We'll see. I plan to go to a couple of the dinners at various co-ops to try it out.

[thesnout]

I lived in a co-op WCRI when I was at University of Waterloo. The rent was cheap because everyone had to do a task/chore. Anything thing from minor cleaning/mopping of our section to joining or running a WCRI club or event. I enjoyed living in a co-op. Met a lot of cool people there during my undergrad.

Not all co-ops are the same. The one I lived in has been around for decades and had a lot of students. There were A LOT of organized social events and a pub. Monthly floor/building meetings, etc. But there was something for everyone. The chores/tasks didn't interfere with my school work. They worked around our schedules so it was great.

Maybe get a tour of the co-op you're considering. Talk to students/tenants. Get a feel for the place. Hope this helps.