LIFE

In Iowa City, a co-housing movement blends living large with living small

Christine Hawes
Inside the Bubble: Progressive Views from Iowa City
From left, Del Holland and Craig Mosher of Prairie Hills, and Ryan Hall of the River City Housing Collective.

While we all debate the merits of the behemoth, but traditional and profit-driven, Pentacrest Gardens, why don’t we move that spotlight a little to the left, to the growing concept of “co-living"?

Because there, we’ll find a philosophical place where community-building, efficiency and shared responsibility come before a developer’s zoning needs, negotiated financial incentives and price per square foot.

You’ll also find a topic that creates common ground among many so-called opposites: senior citizens and progressive millennials (or younger), owners and renters, and families and single professionals.

“Housing is the most intersecting universal issue of this community,” says Ryan Hall, the youthful board president of the River City Housing Collective, where Hall has lived since moving to Iowa City in early 2017.

Studies bear this out: less than two years ago, Iowa City was named the most expensive place to live in the entire state.

A new approach to living right here in Johnson County

Johnson County has two standout examples of co-living, and they’re both approaching pivotal landmarks:

In some ways, the two entities are polar opposites.

Prairie Hill will cost you six figures, focuses on ownership, is mostly geared toward older residents, and you’ll be living in brand new construction.

River City Housing Collective is aimed at affordable rentals, attracts mostly students, and seeks out older structures in need of rehab.

But in philosophy and end goals, Prairie Hill and River City Housing share missions. Both aim to:

  • Generate an increased sense of community and connectivity among people living in close proximity
  • Create the least possible impact on the environment around them
  • Take up less space, in general, than traditional living styles

These two developments are part of a nationwide movement that started in Denmark more than 50 years ago, and it follows many other “trends” in American housing such as a focus on owning our own homes that burst forth in the 1950s and became the definition of success for decades.

Prairie Hill first began work on its project in 2009, when it announced its plan and likely timeline.

A third project labeled “cooperative living,” the corporate-owned Vintage Cooperatives, also opened a location in Coralville and plans to expand to Iowa City soon.

A shared community blends living large while living small

For Del Holland, who looks forward to moving in at Prairie Hill later this year, co-housing is nothing short of the most sensible decision he could make, personally and ethically.

He describes co-housing as “living large while living small,” because it enables everyone in the community to have more resources through sharing.

Column:Iowa City cohousing development is a worthy investment

Holland offers up the example of a grass whip he brought to the development and placed near his lot.

“Instead of having to pay someone to cut the grass, people just take that out and use it," he says. "We’re getting the weeds taken care of, and we don’t all have to own one of those. We have access to all kinds of things we don’t have to own personally.”

Residents also share a common house where visitors can use shared guest bedrooms. And every Prairie Hill homeowner also owns part of the 7-plus acres on which it is built.

Carolyn Dyer, president of Prairie Hill, describes all the ways it’s built to save energy. All units share walls with another unit, use a mini-split HVAC system, are built with interior sand that helps evenly distribute hot and cold air, are built with many recycled materials or items from within 200 miles, feature water-efficient toilets and energy-efficient windows, and will soon be LEED-certified (meaning they’ll meet a worldwide standard of sustainability).

Design plans for the common house at Prairie Hill, a cohousing development planned for west Iowa City.

Shared housing helps relieve other pressures on the building industry, Dyer says, that may only get worse with the new tariffs on soft lumber from Canada. She cites a recent increase in fires and hurricanes that have increased demand for building materials, and a shortage of workers.

Condensed housing like Prairie Hill, where extra bedrooms and bathrooms aren’t a “given,” help relieve those pressures, Dyer says.

Want to save on housing? You could save thousands a year

At River City Housing Collective, founded in 1977, a different kind of “lowered impact” is valued. The collective seeks out existing historic structures that are salvageable, buys them, renovates them and fills them with renters.

Tenants can save thousands annually in housing costs. Hall pays about $550 to $600 monthly for all housing and utilities, compared to an estimated $900 the United Way says is the minimum cost for a single tenant in Johnson County.

Hall is also drawn to the “shared responsibility” part of the collective: Tenants agree to shared cooking twice a week, make year-long commitments to specific chores, and commit to welcoming diversity, whether in terms of ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Hall sees it as not only a good financial decision as a full-time student working part-time and vigorously volunteering for about three groups; it’s also a statement about the recession of 2008 and how solutions kept corporations alive while destroying families.

Hall’s family was mid-move when the recession hit and lost tens of thousands of dollars, he says.

“To me, it’s not only affordable, but it’s also making a statement about the corporate disaster that messed with my family and so many other people across the country,” he says. “It’s a blueprint for housing justice. And it’s more than just a place over my head. It’s a community. I was able to integrate into a queer community here, even though I knew no one here.”

Co-housing in general still has a ways to go in terms of diversity, according to a national watchdog group. The people who partake of cohousing are overwhelmingly white, liberal and highly educated, according to a 2011 study. 

But it’s a start toward making housing about more than the developer’s bottom line.

“I think we’re both trying to be a model for showing a better way to live sensibly, as we move forward,” Holland says. “We’re all now being a bit more sensible about trying to save the planet.

“We know we can do better.”

Christine Hawes lives in Iowa City and is a professional writer and consultant who focuses on progressive issues.