Wolf Willow Cohousing

A senior cohousing community in Saskatchewan, Canada

For a number of years a group of activist women friends had been talking about creating a community where they could live together as they got older, with their significant others. At the same time, another group of friends familiar with cohousing had been trying to identify a group of people who would be interested in creating the first cohousing community in Saskatchewan. In December 2007 those two groups of people connected and proposed that there be a meeting in January 2008 to explore the possibility of creating a cohousing community.

Meetings continued on a monthly basis for eighteen months. The group created a vision statement, principles for living together, and made difficult key decisions like whether it would be an inter-generational community or one designed for seniors. As they made decisions that some didn’t agree with, people chose to leave the group, and by October 2009 there were only seven people left. It was this core group that made the decision to purchase a parcel of land on Saskatoon’s west side and to hire Ronaye Matthew from Vancouver-based Cohousing Development Consulting.

The group hired architects, secured a mortgage, succeeded in getting City of Saskatoon approval to build a multifamily development, and developed strategies and processes for bringing new members into the project. On-the-ground development started in 2010, and there are now 21 beautiful, energy efficient, extremely well built condominiums.

Their website describes the community and its guiding principles, plus a contact form for anyone interested in the project.