Co-Housing

Co-housing involves a housing situation with individual housing units clustered around a common area where residents share cooking and other communal activities. The level of shared communal activity varies from community to community. The individual housing units in a co-housing situation can be connected apartments, townhomes, or detached houses. In urban situations, apartments are most common with shared facilities in the same building. In suburban and rural areas, co-housing often includes a cluster of buildings on a larger lot. Common areas are places where neighbors can cook and eat together. These areas can include laundry, offices, childcare facilities, play grounds, guest rooms, gardening space, and meeting space. This type of housing gained popularity in Denmark in the 1960s. Today, communities of this type are found in Canada, the United States, Australia, the UK, and the Netherlands.