Our Future Success Rests Directly on What We Do Today Together

SHARICA Housing Cooperative, Inc. is a Massachusetts corporation formed in 2009 for the express purpose of empowering believers to collectively invest in building community life through a cooperative, savings, investment, ownership and asset management model.  The cooperative has three fundamental goals.

•    First, to foster Islamic investment practices which benefit economic, religious and social aspects of a member’s life and the Muslim community at large.
•     Second, to help members obtain quality housing with an interest-free alternative to conventional interest based lending practices.
•    Finally, to assist in establishing Muslim communities in Massachusetts and across North America.

The cooperative will accomplish these objectives by developing and managing a collective savings and investment system, acquiring, controlling and operating housing, cooperatively run by its residents, with the intention that its members shall have the right to occupy the units under the terms of occupancy agreements. The resident is and at all times shall remain a stockholder in the cooperative, and shall reside in the unit(s) owned by the cooperative. Dwelling units shall be operated by the Board of Directors of the cooperative, which shall be elected by cooperative members according to the corporations By-Laws.  The Board will delegate substantial responsibility for the day-to-day operations to a property management company.

COOPERATIVE HOUSING
Sharika Housing Cooperative, Inc. pools the combined economic resources of its members for the purpose of developing Shariah compliant housing alternatives. The cooperative coordinates collection of funds from members for investment in residential properties.  A member intending to occupy a unit owned by the cooperative is required to deposit his/her share of total investment with the cooperative for a minimum of six months to qualify for housing occupancy.

When the cooperative has accumulated sufficient funds to acquire title to a property, a member who satisfies all the requirements and is at the top of the wait – list, will be selected for a housing unit of his/her choice.

The housing unit will be wholly owned by the cooperative and occupied by the member pursuant to the terms of an occupancy agreement. The member pays monthly rent to the cooperative and receives an ownership share in the cooperative in proportion to the amount of his/her investment.  A member may sell his/her share(s) to the cooperative and terminate the occupancy agreement in accordance with the buy-out provisions in the cooperative’s By-Laws.  Any appreciation or depreciation in property value at buy-out time is shared between the home-owner and the cooperative according to a formula that depends on their share in the cooperative.

OWNERSHIP IN THE HOUSING COOPERATIVE
The distribution of shares in the cooperative is subject to the specific provisions of the By-Laws and is summarized here as follows:

(1)     Any person who purchases the common shares of the Cooperative becomes a member of the Cooperative in the sense that he participates in the profit and loss of the Cooperative. The profit, if any, is distributed among all the members in proportion to their investment in the Cooperative by purchasing the common shares.

(2)    Any member of the Cooperative in his individual capacity can invest in the Cooperative whereby the housing unit(s) is occupied by the member/investor and ownership of the cooperative corporation is shared by the member/investor and other member/investors, each in proportion of his respective investment in cooperative. The title deeds of the housing unit(s) shall remain with the Cooperative.

(3)    The share of the Cooperative in the housing unit(s) is, then, leased to the member on an agreed rent.

(4)    Members may also qualify for Preferred Share Status in certain units. Under this arrangement, the Cooperative may issue special shares to qualifying member/investors who may receive a right to purchase the share of the Cooperative in the housing unit(s) (mentioned in the articles as preferred shares) by a gradual process. Each time the member/investor buys a “Preferred Share” he buys a certain part of the share of the Cooperative in the house, whereby the monthly rent payable by him is reduced to that extent.    The very last share of the unit(s) to be purchased by the member/investor under this scenario shall be at a price which shall be determined by the Board to reflect 10% of the difference between the cost of the unit(s) and its fair market value. At this stage the full title of the housing unit along with the title deeds shall be transferred to the member/investor.