- Project Type: Multi Family, Affordable Community
- Location: Broomfield, Colorado
Broomfield Housing Authority’s Grove at Cottonwood community is designed to be neuro-inclusive, rental, multifamily, income-aligned and to offer safe, independent, and supportive housing to the City of Broomfield. This advances the original vision for the land to serve individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities (I/DD) and to house the current development’s neighbor, Flatirons Habitat for Humanity, which serves older adults (55+) with limited income.
The 40 residences on the re-platted property are distributed into three separate buildings of different stories, heights, and volumes to fit in with the existing neighborhood of mostly single-family homes and to complement the neighboring Habitat group home. The largest building includes a cohousing-inspired “Common House,” which has shared amenities, property management, and resident services spaces. This space serves as the heart of the community. It has a secured entry, community mail facility, and an elevator that provides access to 30 of the fully accessible units. There are dining areas, gathering spaces, and small living rooms for residents to socialize and meet with service providers.
A basic tenet of cohousing is to reach out to the future residents, understand them and their needs, hear their voices, and then to bring all of that into manifestation architecturally. To serve a population that has been entirely ignored by housing developers and, until recently, affordable housing providers is a real honor and worthy of our time. Adults with I/DD are especially vulnerable to the affordable housing crisis, and many are at risk of involuntary displacement or homelessness.
