ElderGrace: How Santa Fe Seniors Are Building Community

by Jim Hannan

The Grace of these Elders has been gravely earned and sorely paid for.
The winds blew
The storms raged
And they stood like pillars . . .
Life is worth the living of it. Do it with your whole heart.
— from the poem "Elder Grace" by Maya Angelou

Summer 2008. As I wake, I eagerly look forward to my upcoming day living at ElderGrace. I can hear morning sounds from some of my neighbors. Vera is already sitting on her front porch, coffee and newspaper in hand. We talk for a few minutes about her granddaughter, who will be coming for a visit soon; I hope to take her to the Children ’s Museum one afternoon. As I stroll to the common house, I wave to Niels and Bob, on their way to the Arroyo Chamiso Trail for a morning walk.

At the common house, I check the sign-up sheet for tonight’s community dinner. It looks like there will be 17 diners; I make a mental note to pick up more greens and carrots at the Farmer ’s Market today. Peeking into the library, I notice that Nancy is online, checking her e-mail; it reminds me that Richard will be demonstrating some finer points of Photoshop this afternoon. As I walk by the exercise room, I see that Margaret and Ellie have started their morning yoga series.

As usual, the ElderGrace bulletin board is full of lively events. There are three people already signed up for a jazz concert tonight at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. I add my name to the list, too. It will be nice to carpool with Coreen — we can talk a little bit about the new seeds we’ve ordered for the garden. As I head back home, I’m feeling gratitude for living at ElderGrace, the wonderful community we have created.

The preceding scenario gives a taste of what life might be like in the future at ElderGrace, a new residential neighborhood taking form in Santa Fe based on the principles of cohousing and conscious aging. Prospective residents, all at least 50 years old, have been planning their community since January 2006 and expect to move in sometime next year. The project manager of ElderGrace is the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust, a local nonprofit with 15 years of experience.

Cohousing began in the early 1970s in Denmark. The original motivation was a desire to share some of the load of raising children. It soon became apparent that there were other valuable advantages of the cohousing model: a safe, supportive environment and sharing of skills and resources. Two young American architects, Chuck Durett and Katie McCamant, spent time in Denmark observing the fledgling cohousing movement. In 1988 they wrote the book Cohousing and began to push the concept in the United States. The first American cohousing project, Muir Commons, was completed in 1991 in Davis, California. There are now more than 100 cohousing projects in the United States, including the Commons in Santa Fe.

Cohousing is based upon five principles:

  1. Resident management, which means that people meet regularly to solve problems and develop policies
  2. Intentional neighborhood design, where the physical layout of the buildings encourage a sense of community
  3. Private dwellings, in which each person owns or rents his or her own residence
  4. Common facilities for all to use
  5. No common economy — the community is not a source of income for its members.

The centerpiece of cohousing is the "common house," typically sited in the middle of the community. This building becomes the meeting place for residents, providing a daily interaction at the mailbox or dining room, or through other shared activities. Other popular features of common houses include music rooms, exercise spaces and guest rooms for visitors.

The Commons in Santa Fe was started in 1991 and followed a different development model than most cohousing projects. Rather than the entire community being designed with a master plan, the houses were constructed individually by the buyers, resulting in a diverse architecture that took over five years to complete. Otherwise, the Commons is a fairly typical cohousing arrangement, with common meals, a work policy and a common house that is constantly in use. Consensus is used for decision making. In this process, the desired goal is to come up with a proposal that everyone in the group is reasonably happy with or is at least willing to accept. A Commons fact sheet states: "There is a conscious commitment to work, play, share resources, eat, learn, build trust and make decisions together in ways that respect our individual differences and build our strengths as a community."

Senior cohousing is very popular in Denmark. According to Chuck Durett, four out of five new cohousing projects there are for seniors. Much of the popularity is due to a course of 10 different sessions typically held at a community college and conducted by a trained facilitator with a group of interested seniors. The course includes such topics as "Aging in Place," "The Realities of Getting Older" and "Co-Healing: Staying Healthy through Community," with the final session being a tour of existing cohousing projects. Durett believes that after completing the workshop, many seniors in Denmark are convinced that senior cohousing offers many advantages. His new book, Senior Cohousing, features case studies of several Denmark developments.

There are currently two senior cohousing projects in the United States. Glacier Circle, smaller than most cohousing projects with only eight units, is located in Davis, California. Most residents of Glacier Circle have known each other for a long time — seven of the eight are members of the local Unitarian Church. Their mission statement reads: ". . . We are committed to being a welcoming community of independent outlooks and shared values."

The second existing project is called Elderspirit, located in rural Abingdon, Virginia. The driving force behind Elderspirit is former nun Dene Peterson, who has been able to garner both financial resources and publicity. Elderspirit states that spirituality is a primary goal of those in the later stages of life. Other values include caring for oneself by paying attention to nutrition, rest, exercise and social interaction; mutual support, by expressing one ’s needs and listening to each other; giving service to the larger community; acting with respect for the planet; and honoring the creative life. Elderspirit consists of both for-sale homes and rentals.

In addition to the five principles of cohousing stated earlier, ElderGrace also incorporates the principle of "conscious aging." According to one member, "Conscious aging means that we reflect on the life experiences we have had, try to understand them, and accept them, realizing that our experiences are not unique. Most people have had similar experiences: we all experience loss, love, happiness and anxiety. We learn to cope with these events and experiences and so learn to age consciously."

A whole movement has grown up around the concept of conscious aging. One of the seminal books on the subject is From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. There is also a group called Second Journey that promotes workshops and conferences on this topic .

Another voice of conscious aging is that of Drew Leder, a professor of philosophy at Loyola College in Maryland. Leder argues that our contemporary society does not know how to care for its aging citizens or use them productively. He says, "We need environments for older adults that support inner contemplation as well as outward service."

ElderGrace owes its inception to a local nonprofit group named Jubilados, which was started several years ago to facilitate conscious aging through workshops and talking circles, and by promoting senior cohousing. Last September Jubilados sponsored a workshop with Chuck Durett in Santa Fe. The energy that came out of the event led almost immediately to the formation of ElderGrace through a partnership with the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust.

The Housing Trust was formed by a group of Santa Fe residents who were concerned with the rise in housing prices and the fact that local people were finding it hard to buy a home. Since 1992, the Housing Trust has helped more than 1,000 people purchase their first home. In the mid-1990s the trust also realized that there was a lack of new affordable housing stock being provided by the market. It began to develop and build projects, and has now produced over 300 new homes. These homes are typically in the 1,000- to 1500-square-foot range, and the trust has sold the majority of its homes to young working families.

While the Housing Trust had been networking with the Jubilados group for a couple of years, it was really the Chuck Durett workshop that persuaded Executive Director Sharron Welsh that senior cohousing was a viable concept. The trust already owned a piece of land that was ideal. It is located near Cerrillos Road and Richards Avenue, close to the live-work community called the Lofts, and is convenient to shopping, medical facilities and the city’s main bus route. The site is 3.5 acres, which will allow for 28 single-family homes and a common house in the range of 2500 square feet.

To design ElderGrace, the trust has hired local architect Lorn Tryk, who has 30 years of experience in community design and is an active member of the Congress of New Urbanism, a group of design professionals who advocate for more livable urban spaces. Says Lorn, "Working with a large group in the design process presents certain challenges that are not experienced when working with a single client. The reward for successfully meeting such a group ’s needs is a unique satisfaction."

Working closely with the current group of approximately 20 members, Lorn will design the site, the common house and, lastly, the homes. The theory of designing homes last is that when people realize the amenities that are offered in the common house, they are usually comfortable with a smaller house size. At ElderGrace, the projected house sizes range from approximately 800 to 1200 square feet. All the houses and the common house are sited for passive solar gain and will be highly energy efficient. The group is currently researching other green features, including gray-water recycling and solar hot water heaters. In addition, the buildings will feature "universal design," which includes easy mobility and access, and allows people to age in place without expensive remodeling.

The ElderGrace group meets almost every week to work on the project, with members taking turns facilitating. Using our consensus model, we have adopted several policies, including a new-member policy, and we are working on several others. One of the first decisions reached was to use a type of consensus decision making called "Formal Consensus," taken from the book On Conflict and Consensus by C. T. Butler. According to Butler, "Formal Consensus works best in an atmosphere in which conflict is encouraged, supported, and resolved cooperatively with respect, nonviolence, and creativity. Conflict is desirable. It is not something to be avoided, dismissed, diminished, or denied." We ’ve all agreed that we like the idea of using consultants to help us develop our skills.

ElderGrace members have spent several months working on our values, resulting in the following statement:

Spiritual Growth
We hold that there are diverse paths to spiritual growth, and we respect them all. We hold that deepening our connections to the natural world and to our fellow beings is a significant part of conscious aging.
Community
We value living in a respectful, egalitarian community, and we are committed to using consensus to guide decision making. We are creating a place to live that is aesthetically pleasing. We will make space for creative activities that bring joy and laughter into our lives.
Mutual Support
We should value each other and seek to promote an environment conducive to physical, emotional and spiritual support through the end of life, helping each other to locate outside resources as necessary.
Respect for the Environment
We recognize the sacred quality of all life. We work to conserve the Earth’s resources in order to promote a habitable planet.
Service
We value service to the larger community and encourage each other to participate both as individuals and as representatives of ElderGrace.

Our desire to get to know one another has led us to arrange social events where we can relax with each other and not worry about reaching decisions on our community. So far, there also have been two public information meetings held at local churches, which have resulted in an increase from the original dozen or so members to now around 20.

It is clear that there are benefits to this kind of neighborhood. One ElderGrace member comments, "The advantages are having friends to do things with and mutual support when needed. Our group interactions will challenge us to grow. … We will live with shared values and fellowship." Another member shares, "Advantages of cohousing for an older person are spiritual, social and practical. We become less materialistic as we get older, less into getting and spending, and more into the deeper issues of human life. We will find neighbors who can become real friends — a richer social life without too much effort."

For more information, contact Jim Hannan at the Santa Fe Community Housing Trust, 989-3960, www.eldergrace.org.

Resources

Cohousing

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves by Charles Durett and Kathryn McCamant

Senior Cohousing: A Community Approach to Independent Living by Charles Durett

The Cohousing Handbook: Building a Place for Community by Chris Hansen

www.cohousing.org

www.eldercohousing.org

Conscious Aging

From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ronald Miller

Spiritual Passages: Embracing Life’s Sacred Journey by Drew Leder

What Are Old People For? How Elders Will Save the World by William Thomas

www.secondjourney.org