BUILDING A COMMUNITY Co-housing Comes to Saskatoon
ASHLEIGH MATTERN When Sylvie Francoeur and her husband Cliff Shockey moved from the farm to the city, they were looking for a sense of community. “When I was by myself on the farm with my husband, evenings could be very long,” she says. “People need people, and I need people around me.”
They found what they were looking for in Wolf Willow, a seniors co-housing development in Riversdale.Today, Sylvie says she’s as close to the people who live on her floor as she is with her own children. The concept of co-housing originated in Denmark. A collection of private homes
supplemented by shared facilities, the community is planned, owned, and managed by the residents. Co-housing is not to be mistaken as a housing co-operative, where the homes are rented by the people living there. At Wolf Willow the residents own their own condos as well as the land they’re on,
WOLF WILLOW RESIDENTS including an equal percentage of the common space. “We’re responsible for minor repairs and for maintainance ourselves,” Sylvie explains. “We work through committees, so we do have a lot of meetings, but we also have a group of older adults who all have a lot of experi-
SPRING 2016
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Saskatoon HOME
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