Another Calgary co-housing concept falls through. This time, Mosaic Village

Eight years ago, John Mungham and his wife Jocelyne had a vision for where they wanted to age in place — with shared spaces but with their own private unit, where their neighbours are their friends.

A multi-generational co-housing community.

They spent most of the next decade trying to bring their vision to life.

They named the project Mosaic Village and gathered a group of Calgarians who wanted to join. In 2019, the couple bought land in Bowness. They hired Calgary-based developer RNDSQR to build a 24-unit property, had acquired a development permit and were just about ready to start building.

But in late December, they decided to shut the project down.

"We were trying to get to a point where we could get a decent construction loan and then we hoped other people would come on board," Mungham said.

"That never happened."

Many citizens supported the idea, Mungham said, but the team fell short of residents who were willing to commit to the plan and the costs. Each unit was to be sold for $350,000 to $600,000.

Paired with the pandemic and uncertainty with the housing market, Mungham said the project was ultimately too expensive to continue.

 "The decision was made internally that we can't pull it off like this," he said. "I don't think any of us wanted to see this happen. I really believe in our heart of hearts that we tried so hard to move this forward. But it just didn't fly."

The concept of co-housing, which originated in Denmark in the 1960s, is to live in a community made up of individually-owned private units, centred around shared spaces and some common rituals. Members decide everything together by consensus, and often share communal meals and celebrate birthdays.

Senior co-housing has grown in popularity in Canada and the U.S. over the years, but Mosaic Village wanted to expand for younger members and residents who have families.

Only one co-housing community exists in Calgary — Prairie Sky Cohousing, which turns 20 this year. A few others, including Mosaic Village and Dragonfly Cohousing, have reached various stages of development but often fall through.

Sarah Arthurs, longtime resident of Prairie Sky and founder of Cohousing Connections, says she knows how difficult it is to build co-housing and she sympathizes with the Mosaic Village team.