From Shared Values to Shared Quarters

The rhythms of EcoVillage Ithaca echo those of any small upstate New York town. On a recent weekday morning, three home-schooled boys whiz by on bikes. A woman adds topsoil to raised beds of spinach and kale, rejoicing that the plants survived the winter.

But this isn’t just another sprawling residential development. EcoVillage is a planned co-housing community whose 240 residents share kitchens, car rides, and a commitment to sustainable living. Born in Denmark in the 1970s, the co-housing concept has been gaining ground in the U.S., where more than 150 such communities exist, according to the Cohousing Association of the United States. While most are intergenerational like EcoVillage, senior-only co-housing developments are growing in popularity, with 10 completed in recent years and 14 in progress. “One part of the appeal is co-housing communities are mostly, if not entirely, run and organized by residents,” says Stockton Williams, executive director of the Terwilliger Center for Housing at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C. “It’s an approach to creating a more tightly knit sense of community among people with similar values, which seems to be an aspiration that many baby boomers have.”