Winding Rivers’ legal and financial structures were developed with the goals of embracing income diversity, lowering financial barriers to entry, maximizing community flexibility, and creating mutual ownership.
We drew inspiration from many places, but this model is most informed by the LILAC project in Leeds, UK, and the Maitri House in Maryland.
The property will be centrally held as a cooperative. Each household becomes a member of the co-op, which affords them an equal voice in consensus-based social and design decisions in the co-op.
Each household accrues financial equity in the co-op based on their monthly co-op fees. We accomplish affordability and income diversity by separating usage & maintenance costs from the capital costs. Usage and maintenance fees are based on space occupancy, while both the capital costs of ownership and a household’s accumulating equity in the project are distributed based on income.
Mortgage-related expenses are thus borne most by the members best able to support them. These high-earning members then accumulate more equity in the project than lower-earning members while both households pay a comparable percent of their income on the cost of purchasing and rehabbing the building.
Please contact us for further details on the financial model.