Tim Huet: We asked our members back in 2018 to create a vision for the association. In earlier years when we had asked this question, the members said create more food co-ops, that’s what we know how to do.
But in 2018, they said, no, we need to create a more stable economic environment and in the Bay Area housing is one of those things that we need to be working on. So let’s go in the direction of a construction co-op and a landscaping co-op.
We wanted to think about how to bring our whole system to another region that might want us to help develop their system. So instead of us renting a bakery and driving up the cost of the building and the cost of the housing nearby, we would go in and buy the housing or put it into trust. We would have our own construction co-op buy the property and build the bakery. That’s part of how we want to create a comprehensive system when we go to some other region.
Elias Crim : That’s a very integrated kind of development, sort of end to end. You buy the land at one end of the process and a new business comes out the other end. That’s great.
I’d like to ask about another kind of co-op, one much more typical in Europe, and that’s social co-ops — i.e., co-ops focused on social care. How can we see more interest in development around social care? Home healthcare is a big area that’s key for co-ops. Is that not another area that we need to develop?
Tim Huet : Absolutely, we’ve definitely looked at home care as well as charter schools as a form of co-op. Unfortunately, with home care, if you’re living in San Francisco, even the best rates of reimbursement won’t allow you to have affordable housing. To develop some of the things that we say are important — like education and elder care — we need more secure housing for people. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg kind of thing. For now, we’re trying to build the chicken that can lay some housing.
Read the rest at Ownership Matters
Add new comment