-What i've been told is that the American Dream is to make it on your own,
get a big house, start a family. -In the 1950s, the American Dream
became associated with the ideal of a house in the suburbs and a white picket fence.
But that's changing. -As we started to feel
really lonely and isolated in the suburbs it felt like we traded in community and relationships
for the big house. We didn't want to raise our kid alone in a big house in the suburbs.
-It may have different expressions, but at its core the American Dream is the freedom
and opportunity to build the life you want. -The white picket fence single-family home...we
crave something different, and so we committed to a different life. -This family
has dusted off an old housing concept to create something they call a "microvillage."
-We're designing something different here than the American Dream would otherwise tell us to do.
-These are stories of people reimagining the American Dream for a new generation.
Okay Trish, Aria tour, take one.
-This is Trish. A mom, social worker and housing advocate.
-We were really lonely in the suburbs. We had lived there for two years and realized we didn't
know any of our neighbors and so we just craved a deeper sense of community, so fortunately we found
this forming group. So we joined the Aria Residence before the building was even
complete. (Residents chatting)
The difference between co-housing and a traditional neighborhood or any type of
people living in close proximity is really just intention. So the people who live here
live here because they want to live more communally and so when they join
they agree to participate in the community to attend community dinners to give their labor
towards bettering the community and the surrounding spaces.
-Co-housing isn't a new idea and it isn't very different from traditional home ownership
you still own your own apartment or house but you gain access to shared spaces like community
gardens common rooms where residents can cook eat and hang out together.
-So much about co-housing is exactly what we wanted but co-housing in itself is not
affordable and many people think that it is because there's so much sharing.
So we looked around for different housing models that could
bring that communal spirit and that togetherness but have more affordability
we couldn't find one so we decided to create a microvillage.
in 2021 Trish started work on the Chase Street Commons, a one acre piece
of land being developed into an affordable multi-generational co-housing community.
-I mean this is all unused space, so it's perfect for common green and ideally we wouldn't even
like the cars would stop right here so as you design we can have parking all there.
-The conventional approach to real estate development would be to demolish
these buildings and build new properties to maximize the land's value. Trish's approach
is to optimize the land's potential to create connection and community.
-Well, what if one home goes back here and one home goes here community gardens... -Definitely.
-We want to transform the existing space to include four or five households we want to
move cars to the periphery and instead put in walking paths and green space so that we
can facilitate connection with one another. We want to convert our existing structures into
common spaces and one way that we're making Chase Street Commons more accessible is by utilizing a land
lease model. So typically when someone buys a single family home they're paying for the house
that's built as well as the land underneath it. We are trying to separate those two so that folks
only have to come with the money to pay for the home but they can purchase the land over time.
So it creates an opportunity for people to own a home without bringing so much money up front.
-For a variety of reasons millennials aren't buying as many homes as prior generations.
One of those is the high cost of entry even if you can afford a monthly mortgage payment, you
might not be able to afford the down payment. Up to 20 of the house and land combined due upfront.
What Chase Street is working to do is break out the cost of the land so people have the option
to purchase just the home initially and lease the land underneath it until they're able to purchase
that too. This would lower the cost of the initial down payment, making homeownership more accessible.
Co-housing is one point on a spectrum of collective housing models. It's not for everyone
but i also believe that we all have the power to create little villages by just
taking some of the principles of co-housing and infusing them in traditional neighborhoods.
Co-housing is one way younger Americans are re-conceptualizing the dream of homeownership
others are downsizing, finding ways to reduce their carbon footprint or completely redefining
what a home even means in the age of remote work. These trends all speak to a generational desire
to customize the American Dream to fit personal values and ambitions.
Perhaps the beauty even of the American Dream is that it doesn't have to take any particular shape.
For some it could be a life of adventure. For Trish, it means a life of community.
-My dream is to find a sense of purpose and meaning.
It's a world where we're each feeling connected
to one another and in a space where we can support one another and i think that we can do that.