Global Green USA: Greenway Park Cohousing Case Study

Greenway Park Cohousing: 6224–26 South Kimbark Avenue, Chicago

From Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing, by Global Green USA; published by IslandPress, 2007.

Cohousing is a type of collaborative housing that has become increasingly popular in the United States over the past decade. In this model, residents commit to active participation in their community’s daily life, as well as in its design and operations. Although individual homes are private spaces with all the features of conventional homes, cohousing projects include shared facilities such as a common house (for shared meals, classes, meetings, etc.), open space, a playground, and outdoor gathering spaces.

In an old building on Chicago’s south side, a small cohousing community has been created with a “green” identity that distinguishes it from its neighbors. The project is located in Woodlawn, a neighborhood near the University of Chicago that is undergoing gentrification after decades of building decay. Some longtime residents now struggle to afford to remain in the neighborhood. Woodlawn Development Associates (WDA) viewed this project, Greenway Park, as an avenue to provide affordable housing for local Chicago residents, as well as to strengthen neighborhood cohesiveness and self-sufficiency through the cohousing model.

When WDA purchased the decrepit three-story masonry building (as well as the vacant lot next door), it had been abandoned for six years, and was in need of major rehabilitation. The architect, Sam Marts, developer, and a core of potential residents made plans to reconfigure the traditional “six-flat” building into a 10-unit affordable cohousing project, including an interior common space and exterior areas for gardening and recreation. The project involved demolition of all interior walls and finishes, new windows, a new roof, and new heating, electrical, and plumbing systems. Completed in 2000, Greenway Park is comprised of 4 onebedroom, 4 two-bedroom, and 2 three-bedroom apartments. Four of the units are for residents making no more than 60 percent of the area median income (AMI), and the other six are designated for those making no more than 50 percent of AMI. (Currently, however, 3 of the units receive an additional subsidy to rent to very low-income residents making no more than 30 percent of AMI.)

Greenway Park is one of the first cohousing projects created exclusively for low-income residents (most such projects are for middle- to upper-middle-class residents, and a few are mixed income) and is structurally a rental project (most cohousing raise construction funds by preselling units). Unlike most cohousing projects, it does not yet have a common house, although WDA hopes to build one soon on the adjacent vacant lot. Also, the building is the first affordable housing project in Chicago to have no professional manager. Greenway Park is self-managed by its residents, and future tenants are selected by current tenants (while following fair housing guidelines), with preference given to current residents of the Woodlawn neighborhood. Residents do most of the management entirely on their own, including maintaining shared basement laundry facilities, collecting money, and handling repairs. One resident also serves as a part-time paid management assistant.

The building was initially intended to be mixed income, but lenders’ guidelines precluded this from happening. Instead, a larger mixed-income community is slowly growing, spread out over several lots, with plans for future additions. In 2001, WDA renovated two three-flat buildings across the back alley from Greenway Park into 12 for-sale condominiums (on the low end of market rate). WDA is now in the process of developing plans for a shared common house and additional for-sale housing to be built on the lot adjacent to Greenway Park on the south side. The common house would be shared by all three developments, offering a gathering place for community meals, meetings, classes, and possibly guest quarters. WDA is again working with architect Sam Marts and has asked him to include as many green items as possible. Based on the positive green experience at Greenway Park Cohousing, insulation is the highest priority, followed by environmentally responsible materials.

GREEN ACHIEVEMENTS

This project has already served as a learning opportunity in several ways. WDA received funding assistance from the state of Illinois to integrate environmentally responsive features into this project, with the goal of applying lessons learned here to future affordable multifamily projects. Greenway Park’s green efforts focused on an integrated approach that incorporated a package of energy-efficient building practices, the deliberate substitution of a variety of green building materials for their more conventional counterparts, and a 2.4 kW rooftop photovoltaic system. Greenway Park Cohousing also served as a core part of a publication titled Building for Sustainability, produced by one of its funders, the Chicago Community Loan Foundation (CCLF). Many others interested in affordable green housing have toured the development or learned about the measures undertaken here by reading the case study in CCLF’s booklet.

Since WDA believed that long-term affordability meant keeping heating costs low, it decided to focus on improving the building’s energy efficiency. Keenly aware that its budget lacked the flexibility to do this, WDA applied to the state of Illinois’s Energy Efficient Affordable Housing program (part of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, or DCCA) for an up-front grant of $20,000 to offset incremental costs associated with improved energy efficiency. Additionally, energy consultant Paul Knight contributed technical expertise and DCCA’s Maureen Davlin later offered to pay the difference of $25,632 if Greenway Park would replace an assortment of products typically used in affordable housing projects with more resource efficient or green products in an effort to identify and experiment with new products that might be widely applicable in future affordable projects. The collaboration between the state and the project team also led to additional funding for a rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system, to illustrate how PV could be used in affordable housing.

Excerpted from Global Green USA’s Blueprint for Greening Affordable Housing, edited by Walker Wells with Ted Bardacke, Pamela Cepe, Jenifer Seal Cramer, Lisa McManigal Delaney, and Miriam Landman. Foreword by Matt Petersen. Copyright © 2007 by Island Press. Excerpted by permission of Island Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. Images courtesy of Woodlawn Development Association.