Santa Cruz Owner Occupied Co-Housing

  • Community
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About the Community

What we do

We’re two families that have been living together since 2022. Both families have young kids and pets – cats, a dog, and a lot of goldfish. We have house dinners and brunches together and host neighborhood parties. We share chores, help each other out with pet sitting, kid care, and other life stuff, and we have weekly house meetings where we make consensus decisions on things that affect all of us. We own our house together through an LLC. As compared to a single family living alone, our house has more personalities and opinions and different habits to navigate. But we have more support, we love seeing our kids growing up together, we’ve developed stronger communication and problem-solving skills, and each of us only do chores that we like to do and only cook dinner once a week!

We’re remodeling our house right now with work hopefully finishing at the end of 2025. Once that’s done, the house will have suites for 3 families – each with 2 bedrooms, a living room with kitchenette, and 1 or 2 bathrooms – and a shared common space with a main kitchen, dining room, guest room, living rooms, kids’ playroom, laundry room, and offices. The house has a large yard with a natural playground, pond, and creek, and we’re planning to plant a vegetable garden and fruit trees. The house is a 10-minute bike ride from Downtown Santa Cruz, Midtown, supermarkets, and shops, but far enough from town that we regularly see deer and wild turkeys.

Our Vision

We believe that more can be accomplished through community than by ourselves.

Our Mission

We believe that more can be accomplished through community than by ourselves.

  • 4 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Not open to visitors
  • Not open to volunteers
Total
4

How to join

If you’re interested, we’d then like to get to know you better over a Zoom call or a short in-person meeting. If you and we all think we could be a good fit for living together after that, we’ll spend more time together, show you the house, and talk in more detail about the financial and legal aspects, before you and we all decide if it feels right. We’re hoping to spend a lot of time getting to know potential candidates this summer and then decide after that, but our highest priority is a process that feels good to everyone involved and ends up with a really good fit – so it may take longer. We promise to be open and clear with everyone we talk to along the way. We look forward to hearing from you!

Primary decision-making authority

  • All Community Members Together

The whole membership decides collectively.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Monthly fees/dues: $3000
Labor required: 6 hours/week
Members with pre-existing debt: Yes

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Vehicle Share, Library, Workshop, Large Scale Kitchen, Swingsets & play areas, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 2-5 times per week

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Suburban

Residential areas outside city centers but within metropolitan regions.

Self-produced energy

  • Over 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%
  • Land area size
    1 acres

Reviews

Location

  • California, United States

Santa Cruz Owner Occupied Co-Housing

Promoted Needs and Offers

Need
  • Communities with Openings
12 months ago

Water Birch Co-op. Urban living in central Denver.

Large, lovely house built in 1900, two blocks from Cheeseman Park in downtown Denver.  5000 square feet. The house was a Buddhist Meditation Center for 20 years before we got it and has lovely, calm vibes. We currently have ten people and have room for one more. We are an intentional community sharing dinners, 3 living rooms, 2 new kitchens and a kitchenette, & 5 baths. Staple food (organic) is bought together. The group is self-regulating as a co-op; it decides together how the house runs. There are chores ;-) Average cost per room is about $1000 ranging from $650 to $1354. Currently available room is $875. We are just finishing renovation of three bedrooms on the third floor  they are $875 each and share our largest, newest bath (shower and separate claw foot tub) and a brand new kitchenette  they all have beautiful windows and lots of light. PLEASE CHECK OUT COMMUNITY LISTINGS FOR MORE INFO. Initial lease for 3-6 months while we and you decide if we are a good fit for each other.  Deposit in the amount of one months rent is required prior to move in.  We do background checks on all members. Utilities are currently $130 per person per month and are all-inclusive.  They will change if costs go up, that amount is insufficient to cover utilities, or more people mean the cost per person goes down.  WiFi is via mesh network from gig-speed fiberoptic service.  Heat is with radiators.  Cooling is evaporative.  We have a storage room in a nearby commercial facility.  And a new large workshop in the garage. Shared food is $125 per month per person; it is a pass-through cost divided evenly among residents; it does NOT include meat or alternative protein nor any alcohol.  We will not be surprised if that needs to go up some soon ($10 or 15). We have two dogs and three cats in the house  that seems like a sufficient quantity of furry friends for now. Our community intentions include: Communication with compassion. Shared space and life. Shared meals. Shared staple foods which are non-GMO and Organic. Group decision making. Safe, inclusive space: queer and trans friendly, anti-racist, non-violent, and feminist. The purchase of the house by the co-op in about five years. The expansion of the co-op, possibly to include other housing types (like separate apartments). Weekly meetings and house committees to manage our community. We are considering implementing Sociocracy as an organizing method. Quiet hours are from 10:00pm to 8:00am. We are looking for community members who: Want to live in a community not just have a place to sleep and eat. Want to live in a beautiful, clean, and organized house and are willing to help make and keep it that way. Residents should expect to spend 16 hours per month towards this goal. Are curious, compassionate, flexible, and open to living with others who will undoubtedly have different ideas about many things. Are interested in pioneering a new co-op. There will be work involved to get there. Are responsible and communicative. Embrace enthusiastically that living in community requires introspection and personal growth. Are not joining the community as a way of running away from something.
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