May 2-3 kicks off National Cohousing Open House Month with both in person and virtual opportunities to check out cohousing communities no matter where you live or what stage of the journey you are in. Join us to whet your appetite!
A gathering was held February 12, 2026 at recently formed Twin Cities Family Cooperative in Minneapolis (in person and on Zoom). Discussion focused on participant’s cohousing journeys, what helps communities succeed, how they sometimes falter, and how CohousingMN can better support emerging groups with the desire to build new cohousing communities. Participant Ann Gougebas took notes and summarized them for an article in Twin Cities Cohousing Network’s e-newsletter.
Key Themes
Connection is the core motivation — families, seniors, and individuals alike are seeking belonging and daily community.
Cohesion matters more than real estate. Groups succeed when they invest early in shared learning, governance, and trust-building. Groups need members who take the risk of sharing their lives.
Marketing and recruitment are major challenges. It can take dozens of interested leads to result in someone joining a group, or one move-in to a community. Better systems for outreach and follow-up are needed. Some of our active CohousingMN participants have not found any folks willing to continue meeting, or take an active part despite saying they want community.
Collaboration across communities could strengthen recruitment and reduce duplicated effort.
Agreed Next Steps
1. Continue Regular Gatherings We plan to host ongoing in-person gatherings (likely every other month). Twin Cities Family Cooperative has offered to host, and we’ll rotate facilitators and topics.
2. Story / Learning Circles Future gatherings may include structured “story circles” to help build cohesion and shared vision among forming groups.
Developing a shared or centralized interest list across Minnesota communities
Building a network of architects, developers, and other professionals
4. Mentorship & Education We’re exploring informal mentoring for new groups, book studies, and educational sessions to help communities build strong foundations.
5. Resource Sharing Attendees agreed to share contact information, community visit reports, and relevant articles via our newsletter and Groups.io discussion list.
6. Those in attendance were CohousingMN board members, donors and volunteers, Twin Cities Family Cooperative members, and an organizer of Kinni Cohousing and Nörd Commons.
Over three years, Sam Naylor, architect, educator, and researcher, visited over 100 cooperative housing projects on four continents. His visits included cohousing communities, housing cooperatives, and other informal communal living arrangements, which helped him distill the housing design elements that contribute most to the cooperative spirit and ethos of community living.
Architect Sam Naylor, AIA
Register for this free virtual event to learn what Sam Naylor discovered about the influence of architecture on community living and his insights insights into how design can influence housing equity.
Architect Sam Naylor, AIA “The effects of housing design on cooperative living.” Wednesday, October 22, 2025 Free virtual event, 7:00 to 8:30 pm
