Housing Cooperatives

As World War II ended and Americans turned their attention to problems at home, union leaders and other prominent New Yorkers came to believe that cooperative housing would solve the city’s century-old problem of providing decent housing at a reasonable cost for working-class families. In Working-Class Utopias: A History of Cooperative Housing in New York City, Robert Fogelson, one of the nation’s foremost urban historians, tells the story of this ambitious movement from the construction of the Amalgamated Houses after World War I to the building of Co-op City, the world’s largest housing cooperative, four decades later.

Cooperative ownership offers a way for residents to not only have a say in their community’s decision-making, but also to prevent rent hikes and keep their housing costs affordable.

Co-op City is the largest housing cooperative in the country.

To make housing truly affordable, governments need to support non-profit housing cooperatives.

Michael Lebowitz shares his perspective on the social economic models in Venezuela and Yugoslavia. Lebowitz highlights the importance of self-actualization through protagonism and how the most successful of these models focused on solidarity over self-interest.

Kim Capen, the ROC Association Director for the New England Region, talks about his work on the ROC Association, including specific initiatives regarding stigma and branding.

How to start a housing co-op.

Presentations from Start.coop's 2020 Co-op Accelerator Program graduates.

Aroundtheworld.coop visits the Castalia housing cooperative in Barrio Sur, Montevideo, Uruguay

The differences between market-rate housing cooperatives, limited-equity housing cooperatives, and zero-equity co-ops.