Because we want to see if it can be done. You'll get different answers, depending on which of us you ask. Our principles and our willingness to challenge ourselves to live by them. On one end of the spectrum might be a high-mobility city neighborhood where people move in and out and hardly know one another. Cohousing is somewhere in the middle, closer than the closest neighborhood, but a long way from a commune.
Families own private living units and run their own financial affairs.
They arrange that property in a way to enhance neighborliness. The commonhouse is used for meetings, parties, shared meals, childcare, and other group functions. These meetings can be tedious, long, boring, or, if the group works on its meeting skills, they can be efficient and exciting and even fun. We have invited facilitators to coach us. We have conferred with wise Quaker elders.