Community Makeup:
A community is necessarily made up of a collection of individuals. Managing the diversity and individuality of members while maintaining a cohesive community can be challenging. The following headings outline some areas to consider:
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Collective housing communities are motivated to form by the common interests or circumstances of occupants usually reflected in a written community vision. Communities may potentially be targeted at a particular demographic, for example retiring age women, or they may seek a diversity within the community makeup, for example Urban Habitat sought membership across three demographics: older people, families with children, and others. Manual Lutz suggests that the common interests that motivate collective housing communities to form makes them vulnerable to loss of this common interest over time. Over time the demographics may also change as people age and children leave home. This can change the human resources available to the community and create a need for renewal to maintain the community's social sustainability.
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Momentum can be lost when individuals leave the group or are less engaged because of other obligations. Sharing information, tasks, and roles between multiple people helps ensure that the loss of inputs from anyone in a group is not insurmountable. An open internal structure, with task groups, regular reporting, and open access to information is a good strategy to avoid this problem.
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When people move into and out of a collective housing community, they change the makeup of the community. Integrating new members into an existing community may be an exciting and also challenging process for both new and existing members. It requires a considered approach from existing members. Maintaining social cohesion within a community despite turnover can be assisted through events and interactions in shared spaces and the wider neighbourhood.
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Individual circumstances can change and this can also be unexpected, or have implications that create a need for members to leave a community. This should be anticipated and have legally defined means planned so it is straightforward and equitable for both individuals who are leaving and remaining community members remaining.
