Raines Cohen was born to organize. If he had been living in the 1930s, no doubt he would have been a labor union organizer. But since Raines grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s, he organized computer enthusiasts instead. His Berkeley, Calif., Macintosh User's Group (BMUG) with 40,000 members was once the largest computer club in the world. With his stovepipe hat and his massive collection of Macintosh-related t-shirts (now part of Stanford University's collection of Apple artifacts), Raines was very much a visible presence at virtually all Mac user gatherings.

These days, Raines has the same hat, but a different mission. Billing himself as a "certified senior cohousing facilitator" he organizes people to live together in "collaborative housing" where they share open space and a common house while still owning their own home. Residents eat up to three meals a week in the common house, which typically includes a laundry, workshop, shared mail box, dining room, living room and guest rooms for visitors. Decisions affecting the community are made through consensus.

Built, according to Raines, "on the shoulders of co-ops and communes," cohousing first appeared in Denmark in the 1980s and has since spread across the planet. He has personally visited 75 of the 100 or so cohousing sites in the United States. Most consist of 20 to 40 households. They can be smaller but not much larger.

While the majority of cohousing sites are intergenerational, some are specific to elders. The elder-specific developments include features like grab bars, wheelchair access, extra guest rooms for family extended stays, shared personal attendants and quantity discounts. In some places, residents "even pay each other to provide care."

The advantages of living in cohousing are many. "People learn from each other," Raines says. "They are more engaged in community, physically and intellectually more active and more willing to help each other. Plus, going ‘green' is easier." The Berkeley cohousing development where Raines lives has "two trash cans for 14 households, one lawn mower, two washing machines and one shared bicycle pump."

The downside is "cohousing is like being in a small town. You have less privacy, and you have to spend more time maintaining social relations and going to meetings."

To learn more about cohousing and whether this might be an option in your future, check out the following elder cohousing development websites: silversagevillage.com [1] or elderspirit.net [2]. Or you can email Raines directly at elders [at] agingincommunity [dot] com.