In The News - 3/27/2024
RangeMedia
Risk, Reward and Reimbursements
The city wants flexible, cost-effective sheltering. Its billing process makes that risky for small nonprofit partners like Jewels Helping Hands.
(Ed. note: I sent this out already as a separate message, putting it here for completeness)
The San Francisco Chronicle
Redefining retirement with unique co-housing communities
Rising from the eastern bank of the Oakland Estuary at the foot of Park Street Bridge, the concrete, wood and glass face of Phoenix Commons in Oakland’s Jingletown looks like many industrial-chic buildings prominent in urban neighborhoods.
Phoenix Commons, though, is not a typical modern apartment or condo building. It’s a co-housing community for people 55 years and older who own private units but can choose to mingle in ground-floor common areas and attend communal dinners and other activities. The 41 living units occupy the second through fourth floors.
While the age range might suggest assisted living or skilled nursing homes, Phoenix Commons and its brethren more closely resemble a co-op with residents sharing management duties. The legal and financial structures, though, are usually based on homeowners or condominium associations.
“It’s not what many people imagine,” said Jyoti Rae, a former social worker from Indiana who followed her grown children to the Bay Area and moved into Phoenix Commons in 2016.
Rather than sitting around hoping for a phone call from family, residents are more likely preparing a communal dinner, chauffeuring grandchildren, setting up an event like the recent staged reading of “Our Town” or bicycling across the bridge. If you’re looking for JoAnna Allen, she might be paddling her pride and joy, an Oru Kayak, in the estuary.
“We are a very busy and active group,” Rae said.
Residents manage every aspect of running the community. They commit to volunteering on one or more of 17 teams, which includes dining, finance, gardening, social events and wellness, among many others. When not managing tasks, residents can join book and writing clubs and knitting, meditation and mahjong groups or pursue their own favorite activities.
“This is not the place to think about if you want to slow down,” Rae said.
Paths to cohousing
Within the population of about 50 Phoenix residents, many, like Rae, came to be near family. The security of living among people seems to appear on everyone’s list of benefits.
Allen made her way to Phoenix Commons with a history of working with disabled adults, membership in community supported agriculture, Peace Corps service, a “live simply that others may simply live” philosophy and children who settled in the Bay Area before she retired from teaching in 2007. She is devoted to cooking, kayaking and teaches a meditation course for prisoners.
For freelance medical journalist Larry Beresford, his wife’s retirement provided the impetus to downsize from their Oakland home and move in to the newly constructed Phoenix Commons, which opened in 2016. His profession and understanding of the beneficial impact of social connection on physical and mental health as people age bolster his planning of wellness education events.
“Growing old presents a lot of challenges, and dying is messy,” he said. “The community is not going to solve all those problems, but we can do a lot.”
Nancy Weavers, whose husband died recently, still runs a business selling specialized instruments to tech companies, but she’s contemplating retirement. While she enjoys having shops and coffee houses within walking distance, she said she most enjoys chatting with people while volunteering in the front office.
“People are very careful about being nosy,” she said. “They will leave you alone if you want them to.”
Carole White, who previously lived in multigenerational cohousing in Maryland, followed her children to the East Bay, consciously seeking “the old-fashioned village of the future.” She serves on three governing teams and is active in the book club and knitting group, but she also treasures her privacy. Echoing Weavers’ assessment, she adds, “A lot of us close our shades to indicate we want to be alone, and people respect that.”