Here’s some information about Cooperatives and how to form a Cooperative.
The 7 Cooperative Principles: This is a primer on Cooperative Identity and Principles, which have their roots in the Rochdale Cooperative that was formed in 1844.
MAHC presentation on coops: This is a powerpoint presentation describing housing coops and how they work from MAHC President Mat Thall.
Limited Equity Cooperatives: This is a two page description of limited equity cooperatives. It uses a community land trust model to protect the limited equity nature of the cooperative. Some limited equity cooperatives have other mechanisms to preserve their limited equity nature. It’s from the Create Initiative at the University of Minnesota.
NASCO Cooperative Organizer’s Handbook: This is a good roadmap for starting a cooperative from the grassroots up.
Home Base: the Cooperative Development Playbook – NCB Capital Impact: Eventually a group forming a cooperative has to collaborate with finance and legal professionals. This is a good roadmap from the National Coop Bank for understanding how financiers and consultants view developing a cooperative and is heavy on legal/technical side of starting cooperatives.
Mass General Laws Chapter 157B — the primary law governing Housing Cooperative Corporations in Massachusetts: This is the Massachusetts law the governs housing cooperative corporations.
Below are some reports and proposals for housing cooperatives.
Cooperative Solutions to the Massachusetts Housing Crisis — CDI 2021: While the focus is on mobile home parks in this paper, the same problems, arguments, and policy prescriptions can be applied to all multi-family housing in Massachusetts.
An Assessment of Boston’s Housing Cooperatives – Cooperative Development Institute: This report was written by CDI and relied on surveys and interviews with Boston housing cooperative boards to assess the state of housing cooperatives in Boston, particularly lower-income cooperatives and recommends policies to improve the health of cooperatives. The MAHC’s Property Management Forum was the result of some of the observations in the report.
Combining Land Trust and Limited Equity Co-ops benefits residents — Shelterforce: This article discusses using Land Trusts to protect Limited Equity Cooperatives. Limited equity cooperatives need legal and financial mechanisms to protect their limited equity nature to preserve affordable housing for future generations. This article argues for Community Land Trusts to be the guarantors protecting limited equity cooperatives from violating their covenants.