The Establishment

The Establishment is a 19-bedroom home in downtown San Luis Obispo. Our community is loosely organized around house dinners, home projects, group fun and community projects. It is our intention and that of the owners to have a close-knit atmosphere where all residents interact often and not just in a superficial manner.

Rent and bills are organized more like an apartment complex than a co-op, everybody is individually responsible to the landlord. Food and supplies are all purchased on an individual basis. The house does have a small fund collected from a yearly party and monthly contributions by housemates – this pays for basic shared necessities, particularly toilet paper and cleaning supplies. The house is already stocked with a kitchen full of shared pots, pans, spices, appliances, dishware, utensils – those are not guaranteed as part of your residence, but are simply there to be shared. House chores are assigned on a rotating basis and housemates are expected to do an assigned task every week.

The large kitchen, den and backyard are the only shared common areas – this is where “everything” happens. The kitchen has dry food spaces, which are assigned, and four refrigerators also assigned. In general, there isn’t too much kitchen space for your personal cooking goods – shopping small and often is usually required.

While the house tends to aim for socially conscious and environmentally friendly practices, (rags over paper towels, waste sorting, and RO wastewater collection are current examples as of writing) there is no associated community mission. The number of vegan/veggie housemates varies. While many housemates own and drive a car, there is a strong bike culture including parking for up to 2 bikes per person and shared bike repair supplies. We are also located about 10 minutes walk from the bus transit center and downtown SLO, and less than 5 minutes walk from the Amtrak station.

Housemates are usually nature loving, artistic/handy/otherwise skilled, curious, open minded, social (though not necessarily extroverted), and fans of shenanigans. Sharing a home joyfully with a rotating cast of 18-20 other people requires compassion, a thick skin, good communication skills, and a healthy dollop of patience.

If you wish to inquire, please be sure to read everything above. Questions about specifics are welcome – please provide some info about yourself and you interest with your inquiry. Messages which say “How much is rent and do you have any space this summer?” will likely just be deleted, sorry. If you are interested in our upcoming subleasing opportunity please indicate that in the subject line of your email. We are not accepting more pets at this time.