HOUSING CO-OPS: DOES NEED EXIST HERE?

Cooperative housing: Is it needed in Cape Girardeau County.

Becky Eftink and Ruth Dockins aren't sure, but they hope to find out.

Eftink is a community development specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development program in Jackson. Dockins is public information director for the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging.

They held a meeting Tuesday at the Missouri Department of Conservation building in Cape Girardeau to explore the concept of cooperative housing with local officials, bankers and representatives of senior-citizen groups. About 20 people attended, including representatives from the cities of Cape Girardeau and Jackson, and Cape Girardeau County commissioners Gerald Jones and Max Stovall."They were concerned," said Eftink. "They wanted to know if it was something that we need in our area."Eftink said she and Dockins plan to contact meeting participants in about a week to see if there is any interest in forming a county steering committee to encourage development of cooperative housing. After that, an effort would be made to survey area residents to see if such housing is needed. Southeast Missouri State University may be asked to conduct the survey.

Eftink said a survey also could help determine what type of cooperative is needed, whether it is one for elderly, low-income or moderate-income residents. Cooperatives also can include expensive housing units.

It isn't public housing. Housing cooperatives consist of people who join to form a corporation that owns the buildings they live in. Those who purchase a share lease a dwelling within the cooperative, pay part of the monthly expenses and participate in its democratically controlled operation."If you ever want to sell out, you would get your money back plus equity," Eftink said.

The federal government is pushing the USDA's Rural Development offices to provide technical assistance to develop cooperative housing. "The word from Washington is we want to see this succeed," she said.

Eftink said the Rural Development agency can provide some funding in the form of low-interest loans or a cooperative can secure a bank loan.

Dockins said the idea is worth pursuing, particularly for housing for the elderly. She said there is a need for housing for the elderly in the 18 counties served by the Area Agency on Aging. The question, she said, is whether people are interested in forming a cooperative.

Nationwide, there are 4,500 cooperative housing units for the elderly.

A cooperative housing unit in this area would be much like an apartment complex, Dockins said. "It would just be a complex where seniors could live independently."Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III said he isn't sure there is a need for cooperative housing for the elderly. Cape Girardeau already has a number of retirement homes and senior-citizen housing complexes. Spradling said he doesn't know if a cooperative would provide affordable housing in the area.

The focus of the Rural Development program has been to help establish housing for elderly farmers who want to move into some type of retirement development in small towns, Spradling said. "We really don't have that type of setting in Cape Girardeau," he said.

Still, the mayor and others acknowledged that Tuesday's meeting strictly was an informational session, and no final decisions have been made.

Persons interested in serving on a Cape Girardeau County cooperative housing steering committee should call Ruth Dockins at 335-3331 or Becky Eftink at 243-3158.