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Housing and Complete Health Care: A Bottom-Up Approach

Building Community from the Ground Up

Health care systems everywhere struggle with complexity, high costs, and unequal access. Traditional top-down models often promise efficiency but fail to deliver affordability, accessibility, or true comprehensive care. The result is rising injury, preventable deaths, and financial hardship for millions of families.

It’s time to shift the focus — to rebuild health and housing from the ground up.

Why Top-Down Models Fail

Conventional systems tend to favor the upper middle class and those covered by government programs like Medicare or Medicaid. Meanwhile, millions without employer-sponsored or government-funded coverage are left behind — without financial security or the personal networks that make navigating care possible.

Private insurance becomes an unreliable safety net, often sought only in times of crisis. And political reform, tangled in ideals of rugged individualism and self-reliance, has rarely delivered meaningful change.

Real reform must rise from local communities — grounded in mutual support and shared responsibility. That’s where cooperatives come in.

The Cooperative Solution: Housing as the Foundation for Health

The first instinct of every person is to find shelter. Cooperative housing turns that instinct into a platform for community well-being. By sharing costs and responsibilities, members not only lower housing expenses but also free up resources to cover health care needs — even when care is delivered through private providers.

The Natural Evolution of Mutual Aid

Throughout history, small, cooperative groups — usually 8 to 12 adults and 4 to 8 children — formed the backbone of sustainable societies. They provided shelter, food, health care, energy, and transportation together. These communities proved that cooperation, not competition, builds resilience and emotional well-being.

Today, we can design such communities intentionally — rooted in mutual support, free from exploitation, and committed to peaceful coexistence.

A Vision for Cooperative Habitats

Our cooperative model integrates housing and health care into small, self-sustaining communities that reduce costs and enhance quality of life.

Core Principles

1. Integrated Living – Each community provides shelter, food, health care, transportation, and energy locally.

2. Sustainability – Durable, self-sustaining facilities managed cooperatively.

3. Labor Contribution – Members contribute through local work and community enterprises.

4. Financial Autonomy – Shared costs managed through personal accounts.

5. Thoughtful Design – Beautiful, functional, and environmentally responsible homes with both private and communal spaces under long-term affordable leases.

6. Collective Ownership – The cooperative holds capital assets and manages essential services.

7. Economic Efficiency – Costs substantially lower than market rates, enabling meaningful savings.

Economic Model

• Average Family Income: $70,000/year

• Cooperative Living Costs: Roughly half of that, with 10–20% additional savings possible

Community Scaling

• A small community includes about 20 homes on 31 shared acres, combining privacy with common green spaces, parks, and outdoor activities.

• Each community serves roughly 120 individuals, linked to another 7 cooperatives for comprehensive, home-based health care — an ideal size for a primary care practice of 840 patients.

• Twenty-five such cooperatives form a town of about 20,000 residents, with growing purchasing power that reduces costs across all sectors.

Integrated Health Care Services

Through partnerships with Patient Physician Cooperatives (PPC) and other community providers, members receive access to:

• Primary and specialty care

• Pharmacy discounts

• Diagnostic imaging

• Virtual urgent care

• Dental, vision, and hearing services

• Association Group Stop Loss Insurance from Odyssey Re - Unlimited

Habitat Design Features

• Private bedrooms with en-suite facilities

• Spacious communal living areas

• Shared kitchens and laundry where desired

• On-site primary care clinic

• Wellness and fitness facilities

• Renewable energy solutions

• Outdoor parks and gardens

• Shared transportation hub and vehicles

Governance and Financial Structure

Each cooperative operates under transparent, shared ownership. A 501(c)(3) Pooled Income Fund ensures long-term affordability and sustainability.

Average Monthly Cost (Per Adult/Child):

• Shelter: $750

• Food & Sundries: $200 / $100

• Health Care: $350 / $200

• Utilities, Transportation, Maintenance (combined): $1,140

Estimated Savings: Up to $1,000 per adult per month compared to current housing and health care costs.

A Personal Beginning

To help make this vision real, my wife and I donated 31 acres of our family property in Splendora, Texas to TBT, the 501c3 health care cooperative — our home for 52 years, where we built three houses and several shared-use buildings.

She passed away last year, but her lifelong work as a teacher, mother, and grandmother continues in this effort to create something good for others. The property, valued at approximately $1.4 million, provides a foundation for the first housing-and-health cooperative, where twenty families can secure long-term leases far below market cost.

Over 20 years, a single family can save more than $300,000 — greater than the equity they would build through a traditional mortgage.

Join the Movement

Tomorrow’s Bread Today is dedicated to building a cooperative future based on love, peace, truth, tolerance, and shared prosperity.

We invite individuals, families, and partners to join us in developing sustainable communities where housing, health, and humanity are one.

📍 Address: P.O. Box 1838, Splendora, Texas 77372
📧 Email: donmcco@tbt.org
📞 Phone: 832-599-8449