Couple has designs on creating utopia in city
CITYWIDE — Robert and Rayni Joan Moskowitz don’t just want to know their neighbors, they want to purchase a home with them.
The Santa Monica couple is looking to create a co-housing development, or intentional community, in which families ban together, purchase property and collectively design, finance and develop land to fit their definition of the perfect neighborhood.
Under most models, each family would own a portion of the development, including their own residence with the option to sell it if they choose. There is usually a community house or, in many urban areas, a community condo, where neighbors meet, have dinner and share life lessons while their children play safely in streets free of traffic and crime.
“This is not a commune. We don’t swap wives or anything like that,” said Robert Moskowitz, 60. “We want to have meals together maybe three times a week, buy in bulk, have friends around all the time. There are a lot of advantages to co-housing. We think it’s a great idea and we’re shocked no one thought of it before.”
Robert and Rayni Moskowitz are trying to locate 25 to 100 Santa Monica families who would be interested in that type of living situation. They’ve printed fliers and distributed them to some community centers, parks and other high-traffic areas. As of Tuesday, May 9, they’ve received no responses. “We have a lot of confidence that people in Santa Monica will be open to this once they learn of all the possibilities,” said Rayni Moskowitz, who has lived in co-housing developments across the country and cherishes the old-fashioned sense of community, where every neighbor feels comfortable enough to engage in conversations with those who live around them.
“It’s more than just knowing your neighbor or the guy who lives across the hall,” she added. “You share ownership. There’s some level of collective decision-making. You decide what activities go on in your neighborhood, whether it be yoga classes or guest speakers, dances, all kinds of things.”
Co-housing developments are nothing new, said Douglas Kleine, executive director of the National Association of Housing Coops in Washington D.C.
“They got their start in New York City in the late 19th Century as the only way to own in a vertical environment,” Kleine said. “The concept of real estate is from the center of the Earth to the heavens, so if I’m on the third floor, I can’t own my home because my feet aren’t on the ground. Condo legislation in the ’60s changed that, but housing co-ops were the first.”
From there, the concept evolved into intentional communities, where interested families could design neighborhoods to fit their lifestyles. There are communities with a strong religious focus, those that cater to students. Some are centered around agriculture while others focus on the arts.
There are roughly 3,000 intentional communities in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Fellowship for Intentional Community.
Raines Cohen has helped create several communities as a board member of the Co- Housing Association of the United States. Cohen currently lives in a co-housing development in Berkeley. Before that, he lived in Swan’s Market, a co-housing development Oakland.
The benefits of living in that kind of housing are plenty, Cohen said. For one, all members go through an intense screening process before any land is acquired. It helps weed out those who are not serious about the project or can’t afford it, and it identifies those who may not be the best people to live with. Basically, prospective home buyers have a say in who their neighbors are going to be, something not found in the open market.
There also is an opportunity to save money on purchasing a home, with financing for the property at a fixed rate of 30 to 40 years. It protects home buyers from fluctuating interest rates. Buyers can get more amenities as well, such as a pool or large patio, without having to pay for the total cost themselves.
Security also is enhanced as neighbors look out for one another, co-housing enthusiasts said.
“It’s terrific,” Cohen said. “I can’t imagine living any other way. I know my neighbors, but I have privacy. We’re not sharing bathrooms. We’re not sharing kitchens, but we do have meals together a few nights a week. We support each other in a variety of ways. We share car trips, baby-sit. Yesterday, I borrowed some cold medicine from my neighbor and my fiancee borrowed some of the neighbors’ kids to help water some plants.”
However, there are some drawbacks. “I have to make sure that I leave extra time in the morning before work because I know I’m going to run into people who want to talk,” Cohen said. “I like that, but you have to be prepared for it.”
Don Cram, a resident of Los Angeles who is working with co-housing groups in Pasadena and Ventura County, said the process can be discouraging, taking anywhere from two years to a decade to identify a core group of families who actually like one another. They then must secure financing, purchase property, hire an architect and develop the site. Sometimes aesthetics can divide people.
To create an intentional community takes a lot of hard work, patience and money, co-housing experts said.
“There have been plenty of groups that have formed and failed, particularly in Southern California, where land values are so high, but I’d like to play a part in changing that,” said Cram, who is interested in co-housing because he is thinking of starting a family and likes the idea of extra security provided by an intentional community.
Many of the co-housing developments in the state are located in Northern California, where land values are not as expensive and there is open space to buy, experts said.
“I think the only real way to succeed is to hire a developer or work with municipalities and participate in public land offerings for redevelopment,” Cram said. “It’s just extremely hard for a group of people interested in co-housing to learn the development game and to bid competitively.”
Robert and Rayni Moskowitz know they have an uphill battle ahead of them, particularly with Santa Monica land values being so high, but they are confident people in the city will respond given Santa Monica’s reputation for embracing new ideas.
“Santa Monica is a great place to live,” Robert Moskowitz said. “It’s walkable, the people are lovely, the weather is lovely, the architecture is lovely. I think you can’t live in a better place than Santa Monica. But we want to live in a co-housing situation and create that extended family.”
Those interested in learning more about the co-housing effort should send an e-mail to
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 12, 2006. Read the original PDF.