Core Principles of AHIC
Visitablity
Buildings and communities can be designed with visitability in mind. This means that they are accessible to people with varying abilities—for instance, people with reduced mobility or people who might have difficulties clearing obstacles.
Visitability is achieved through inclusive design in housing. A few simple features, such as entryways without steps, 32-inch-wide doorways, 36-inch-wide hallways, and an accessible bathroom on the main floor, are essential for a person with mobility impairments.
The benefits from such design include increased opportunities for social interaction and an easier time conducting daily activities. Adding these features during construction costs very little and eliminates the need to renovate existing homes or move to new ones—conserving energy and materials and preserving social networks. At CoHo Ecovillage, visitablity features were included in the original design, paving the way for A Home in Community to develop its first project there.
Links to More Information
The American Association of Retired People (AARP) published a white paper about visitability.
The Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access provides reports and other information about designing for visitability.
Concrete Change is an international network with a goal of making all new homes visitable.
The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University provides information, technical assistance, and research on accessible and universal design in housing, commercial and public facilities, outdoor environments, and products.
Expertise has developed a guide to help caregivers and those living with disabilities understand the available federal grants and other resources that can help create a home that is accessible. The entire guide is available at: http://www.expertise.com/home-and-garden/home-remodeling-for-disability-and-special-needs.
Intentional Communities
An intentional community is a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They usually share responsibilities and resources.
Examples of Intentional communities include collective households, cohousing communities, ecovillages, communes, survivalist retreats, kibbutzim, ashrams, and housing cooperatives. New members of an intentional community are generally selected by the community's existing membership, based on the vision and values of the collective group.
The purposes of intentional communities vary. They may include sharing resources, creating family-oriented neighborhoods and living ecologically sustainable lifestyles (ecovillages). Many intentional communities focus on the importance of living and sharing life together, as opposed to the perceived trend of isolation in Western culture.
Links to More Information
The Fellowship for Intentional Community serves the growing communities' movement, providing resources for starting a community, finding a community home, living in community, and creating more community in your life.
The Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) offers inspiring examples of how people and communities can live healthy, cooperative, genuinely happy, and meaningful lifestyles -- beacons of hope that will help in the transition to a more sustainable future on Earth.
The Northwest Intentional Communities Association provides a directory of intentional communities in the Pacific Northwest.
Meadowdance Community Group provides an article on “What is an intentional community?”
The U.S. Cohousing Association offers numerous resources and contacts for building and living in a cohousing community.
Aging in Place
The Center for Disease Control defines aging in place as "the ability to live in one's own home and community safely, independently, and comfortably, regardless of age, income, or ability level." Homes and communities that are well-suited for aging in place incorporate universal design principles and offer livability features such as telecare, communication assistance, health and wellness monitoring, and home safety and security.
Cohousing embraces the village concept, calling on the collective abilities of the community to respond to the challenges of aging. It builds a shared sense of community through social activities, including collective dinners, book clubs, celebrations, and educational activities. All of these features help provide a healthy place for people to grow older, but to be fully effective, even a village requires thoughtful features.
CoHo Ecovillage was conceived and constructed with universal design concepts to support successful aging in place. The homes, built in 2007, include features that allow easy access and help prevent injuries. For example:
Ground-floor units have flat entryways.
Bathrooms contain grab bars and hand-held flexible shower heads.
Stairways have railings and light switches at both ends of the stairs.
Unobstructed pathways reduce dangers to an older person.
Links to More Information
Healthy Places Terminology defines related term and links to many other resources.
Promoting Aging in Place: Policies and Practices that Work was a forum sponsored by the AARP that examined policies and practices for aging in place.
National Aging in Place Council links to diverse service providers in various specialties and offers practical advice.
Certified Aging-In-Place Specialist (CAPS) provides training in the unique needs of older people, home modifications, common remodeling projects, and removal of barriers.
Building Community for Everyone: Two Paths to Inclusion at CoHo
What does it really mean to build an inclusive community? At CoHo EcoVillage, it has meant working on two parallel and equally important fronts:
designing communities that are physically accessible and socially inclusive, and
addressing the financial barriers that prevent many low-income people with disabilities from living in cohousing at all.
These two efforts are related—but they solve different problems.
Visitability and Why It Matters
From the earliest days of CoHo’s development, accessibility was treated as a core value rather than an afterthought. In 2004, the community made a deliberate decision to design all ground floors to be visitable—with level entrances, wide doorways, open floor plans, and accessible bathrooms.
This decision was not initially about any single resident. It reflected a recognition that disability is common, often temporary or age-related, and that inaccessible homes quietly limit who can visit, participate, and belong.
The AHIC member’s story illustrates this clearly. In one home, a child who used a walker could barely enter and was confined to a single room. At CoHo, that same kind of visit became effortless—siblings using wheelchairs could come inside, play, and stay longer. Ordinary social moments became possible.
Disability can be profoundly isolating. When homes and neighborhoods are not accessible, people with disabilities are often excluded not by intention, but by design. Visitable cohousing helps counter that isolation by allowing people to show up, be present, and form everyday connections—connections that are at the heart of community life.
Importantly, visitability benefits everyone: children, aging adults, people with temporary injuries, friends, family members, and neighbors. It allows relationships to continue in the places where people actually live.
When Accessibility Isn’t Enough
Accessible design alone, however, does not solve another major barrier: cost.
Many people with disabilities live on fixed or limited incomes and simply cannot afford to buy into cohousing communities—even ones designed to be visitable. This was the challenge facing Mike Volpe.
Mike was deeply involved in CoHo from the beginning. He served on the Design and Development team and even as community president. Yet despite his contributions, he could not afford to purchase a unit.
That gap is what led to the creation of A Home in Community (AHIC).
Formed by CoHo members and supporters in 2007, AHIC addresseds the financial barrier by purchasing a home and renting it at a subsidized rate to a low-income person with a disability. AHIC does not replace accessible design; it builds on it, making actual residency possible.
Through loans, donations, fiscal sponsorship, and volunteer effort, AHIC purchased a unit at CoHo. In November 2007, Mike moved in.
Belonging, Permanence, and Mutual Benefit
For Mike, living at CoHo meant something he had never experienced as a lifelong renter: permanence. He put down roots—literally—by planting trees outside his home. He built relationships through shared meals, music, and daily interactions.
The benefits flowed both ways. Community members described deeper relationships, meaningful opportunities to help one another, and children growing up seeing disability as a natural part of everyday life.
Mike lived at CoHo for fifteen years. After his passing in 2022, the AHIC unit became home to another person with a disability—demonstrating that this model was never about one individual, but about creating lasting inclusion.
A Model with Two Clear Lessons
The experience at CoHo shows that inclusion requires both:
Visitable, accessible design that prevents isolation and allows community life to unfold naturally, and
Financial mechanisms, like AHIC, that make cohousing possible for people who would otherwise be excluded despite accessible buildings.
AHIC continues to share this model with other cohousing communities, offering a practical example of how social values, design choices, and financial creativity can work together to create places where more people truly belong.
Part 1 of Building an Inclusive Community: The AHIC Experience
Part 2 of Building an Inclusive Community: The AHIC Experience
Building an Inclusive Community:
The AHIC Experience
Hear the stirring story about how members of a cohousing village created an inclusive and visitable community. During the development of CoHo Ecovillage in Corvallis, Oregon, members established a nonprofit organization called A Home in Community (AHIC). For its first project, AHIC purchased a unit at CoHo to be rented at subsidized rates to people with physical disabilities who could not otherwise afford to live in cohousing. The presenters describe the process of forming and operating AHIC, the reasons why it was formed, the benefits of an inclusive and visitable community, and lessons learned to date.
View the two-part video at our YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/ahomeincommunity or watch them below:
Part 1 of Building an Inclusive Community: The AHIC Experience
Part 2 of Building an Inclusive Community: The AHIC Experience