Co-ops give students alternative living options.
from sara sneath
originally aired on ad astra radio thursday february 23rd, 2012
Gabriela Toledo, together with her three roommates, signed a contract for the Connection at Lawrence, an apartment complex located at 3100 Ousdahl Rd. With this contract, Toledo, a graduate student from Havana, Cuba, and her roommates agreed to the amount of money they would contribute toward the apartment complex. However, they never agreed to the amount of time and energy they would contribute to one another.
Toledo found the arrangement lonely: Although her roommates and her didn’t argue, they also didn’t talk. She said she didn’t know of an alternative, until, while helping a classmate find a place to live, Toledo was introduced to the idea of cooperative living.
The International Cooperative Alliance website says a cooperative is an independent group of people united voluntarily to meet shared economic, social and cultural needs through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise.
Toledo simply describes a co-op as a home.
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