Loneliness Is on the Rise. Are Closer Neighbors a Solution?

Loneliness is on the rise, and it may be as harmful to health as cigarette smoking, medical experts say. Now some Americans are embracing a collaborative living arrangement called cohousing as a solution.

Even before the Covid pandemic shut down schools, closed businesses and introduced the idea of social distancing, medical experts were seeing an alarming increase in Americans struggling with isolation. The U.S. surgeon general has called this trend an epidemic of loneliness, as harmful to health as smoking cigarettes.

To counteract isolation, some Americans are turning to a living arrangement known as cohousing. The idea originated in Denmark in the 1960s, describing communities of privately owned, single-family houses built around shared outdoor spaces, bringing neighbors closer together.

Why Raise Children in Cohousing?

A memo about raising children in cohousing by CoHousing Solutions President, Katie McCamant

Sitting on the back deck, summer evening, listening to the birds in the swale, kids in the pool, sunlight fading… It seems living in cohousing is pretty much a kid paradise.

“Our” kids at Nevada City Cohousing, like most American kids, go off to a variety of schools (local, public, charter, home school), but in cohousing, they enjoy a level of freedom and safety few Americans do today. We have about 35 kids, ranging in age from babies to the occasional returning college student. The kid culture is one of acceptance and inclusion of all ages. That didn’t just happen; that happened because we have a lot of very proactive parents who helped establish a healthy kid culture from the beginning.

We Have a Plan!

This is the official site diagram we created during our May 13-14, 2023 Site Programming Workshop. Under the guidance of our architect Jack Wilbern and architectural designer Mathilde Berthe, we formed two groups that each arranged wooden blocks and strips of paper representing buildings, parking, and farming areas on the topo site maps. We took turns saying "what about this?" and together created 19 possible layouts for our village and agrihood. Mathilde and Jack helped us identify recurring themes in our designs and clarify what preferences they represented. We practiced consensus decision-making to end up with our official site diagram.

During our next programming workshop, to be held in the Fall, Members will design our Common House. This centrally-located building is where we can prepare and eat meals together, and hold community meetings and celebrations. We will decide what other amenities we want to include, perhaps guest rooms, a library, an exercise room, and a theater.  

Call John Patrick at 615.480.2786 about getting involved in this workshop

Welcome to the Agri-hood

Burn Village and Farm was featured in Edible Nashville’s May/June 2022 Garden Issue.  Along with grounding the community – quite literally – around a working farm, an agrihood is all about cohousing. While the homes are privately owned with their own full baths and kitchens, stakeholders in an agrihood share a communal space with a full kitchen and dining area of its own, allowing neighbors to get together for regular meals and providing their kids with a safe place to play.