Retirement Cohousing Directory
Aging
Here Is Both Delightful and Graceful
Are
Rentals a Source of Income or Nuisance?
Attracting Younger People
Common House in Retirement Cohousing
Deciding
If Cohousing Is Your Correct Choice
Ecohousing:
A Green Retirement
Features of Common House
Finding DFW Cohousing Communities
Friction
Making Community Decision
Gardens
in Retirement Cohousing
How
Much Does It Cost?
Importance of Autos Recedes
Innumerable Benefits
of Cohousing
Locating Retirement Cohousing in
DFW
Near
Universal Features
Planning Outdoor Common Areas
Retirement
Cohousing & Your Active Lifestyle
Social Isolation & Loneliness Relating to Dementia &
Alzheimer Disease
What About
Children?
What
Are Usual Common
Areas?
What
Is Shared, Private in Retirement Cohousing?
It is really hard to make a complete list of benefits when retirement cohousing has so many, many beneficial features.
Some of the benefits are:
1. Friendships Stop Social Loneliness Social loneliness is caused by the lack of friends and acquaintances and is worsened by the isolation of retirement and/or by living in apartments or suburban neighborhoods. Cohousing immediately ends the isolation of apartment and/or suburban living and helps replace workday friends. And, although social opportunities exist in all retirement housing, cohousing makes it much easier and quicker to make social friends, particularly for those who are somewhat shy.
2. Ends Emotional Loneliness Retirement can be lonely for many, particularly those who are far from or have no close family. It is also a problem for seniors who are single. Emotional loneliness comes from having no one to share your intimate thoughts. Even one "best friend" can end emotional loneliness. In fact, seniors who have at least one person to share their emotional lives generally live longer than those who do not have that privilege. Cohousing provides the first step in making an intimate friend by providing close and repetitive situations with people who are like-minded.
3. Earth Friendly There are more opportunities to reduce, reuse, and recycle when working as a group. Rather than use space for houses, streets, and parking, clustered housing allows cohousing communities to preserve much of the green space of the site. Passive solar housing can be designed. Some alternative energy sources can be included in the community and even within the homes. You will be leaving a greener earth to your children and grandchildren. Many retirees and their heirs consider this much more important than leaving money.
4. Better Physical Health Cohousing makes it possible to share exercise with others who are similar to you in physical fitness and age. The common areas of a cohousing community usually have walking trails with planned exercise areas in the common house. Meals that are nutritionally balanced, home-cooked, non-processed, and organic are generally available without the daily cooking hassle. Meal time is shared with friends. Friends generally make seniors more healthy, even physically.
5. Better Mental Health Social and intimate support, shared hobby areas, planned meditation and quiet areas plus the mental stimulation of activities, make cohousing a better place for your mental health to flourish.
6. Physical Safety-In a cohousing community, all residents know each other well. When a stranger is spotted, he/she can either be questioned immediately or law enforcement officers can be called to do this. Gated communities are possible in many situations.
7. Shared resources, Saved Time, and Lowered Living Costs Cohousing allows residents access to more facilities than they would have on their own such as community gardens, greenhouse, game/card areas, workshops, art/craft areas, and shared dining and kitchen facilities in the community areas. Local food and other buying co-ops can be formed with optional membership from residents and even membership among the outlying community if desired. Shared meals, car pooling, less yard work, more on-site activities, smaller homes, clustered housing, trading goods, and shared guest rooms all help lower living costs. Shared chores and less duplication of effort save an abundance of time for cohousing seniors.
8. Private, Quiet Times Cohousing provides private living, dining and kitchen facilities within a private home with some home styles providing small private outdoor living areas as well. Senior cohousing also adds a measure of quietness that will not be available in intergenerational cohousing.
DFW
Ecovillages
Retirement or Intergenerational
Green Housing and Villages
in many areas of
Dallas-Fort Worth.
|
Energy-Efficient, |