Co-Housing NL (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada)—Piloting Affordable Housing Within a Sustainable Community Context

A Founding Member of Killick EcovillageEcovillage, Killick (formerly Cohousing NL) Cohousing NL, a cohousing community currently in development in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, provides a case study of a futures-oriented approach to improving housing affordability. It demonstrates the significance of values- and futures-oriented leadership as a means to co-create and implement a vision for a more socially and environmentally sustainable neighborhood. It describes some of the strategies—such as dynamic governance, sociocratic decision-making, and leadership that is participatory, inclusive, and diverse—that Cohousing NL uses to understand the complexity of the issues, develop solutions, and work to address larger systemic equality issues. The goal of this chapter is twofold: first to discuss the context of shifting wealth in the Canadian housing market that the government has not yet adequately addressed; and second, to describe “cohousing” as a model of alternative, sustainable community living. This case demonstrates that Cohousing NL may be the model for future housing and community living in Canada.