Introduction to Housing Co-ops

The shortage of affordable housing in the U.S. market has an enormous impact on the quality of life in cities, towns, and rural areas. As community leaders seek solutions to the affordable housing crisis, people continue to make difficult choices about where to live.

Cooperative housing offers an affordable housing solution. Although housing co-ops have been around since the mid-19th century, few people really understand how the cooperative housing model works. One of the beauties of the housing co-op model is that it is adaptable to the specific characteristics and needs of almost any community. A housing co-op can be established in existing rental property, or in a manufactured home park, or even a town home arrangement. An existing building can be rehabilitated for co-op use, or the co-op can be housed in a newly constructed facility. A housing co-op can be developed for families, seniors, migrant workers, students, artists or anyone else with a common housing need. The options are limited only by the creativity and will of the developer and residents. Join Deb Trocha, executive director of the Indiana Cooperative Development Center (ICDC), to learn the basics of housing cooperatives.

Deb Trocha joined ICDC in August 2006. During her tenure the organization has grown its educational programming to include a number of events highlighting and promoting cooperatives. She has also helped raise the profile of cooperatives in Indiana through her advocacy efforts. Trocha has served on a number of boards including two terms as board chair of CooperationWorks, the national cooperative development network; the Cooperative Development Foundation; and the National Cooperative Business Assoc (NCBA). In 2005, Governor Joseph Kernan acknowledged Trocha’s efforts in assisting Indiana’s small businesses and entrepreneurs by awarding her a Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest honor which the Governor of Indiana bestows.

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