Mission
Building a Co-op Federation
The Boulder Housing Coalition (BHC) is a 501(c)(3) Community Housing Development Organizations that was founded in 1995. The BHC is dedicated to creating permanently affordable, community enhancing, cooperative housing for the people of Boulder County. We are working to create a cooperative housing federation that contains a variety of co-ops including; permanently affordable rental co-ops, limited/equity co-ops and co-housing.
We envision a large federation with each house sending a representative to the Boulder Housing Coalition Board. The board will consist of a mix of house members and members of the community at large. The key to the long-term stability of the BHC is to have a strong Board of Directors that is supported by a full time staff of affordable housing developers. An analysis of co-op systems in other parts of the country has shown that three rental co-ops are typically required to support one full time staff position. The continued acquisition of permanently affordable rental cooperatives is critical for growth of the organization. Co-op organizations with larger rental portfolios are able to leverage the equity of those houses to create new affordable cooperatives without public subsidy. Madison Community Coops (MCC) is an example of a 12 house cooperative federation that has reached that level. MCC was formed by a number of independent co-ops in 1968, their simple motto; “Housing for People Not Profit” inspires the co-op movement in the U.S. The goal of the BHC is to reach that level of capacity in a matter of years not decades.
