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
11 months ago

Travel to visit intentional communities with Ecovillage Tours ✈️

Ready to actually visit some communities? Take the next step on your journey towards intentional community living. Join an Ecovillage Tour! ✓ All-inclusive guided trips ✓ Visit a variety of communities, cohousings & ecovillages ✓ Meet community founders & residents ✓ Learn group governance, permaculture, eco-living & more ✓ Make lifelong friends within your traveling group ✓ Transformative adventure awaits! About Ecovillage Tours The only transformative travel experience that brings you to regenerative intentional communities. Find your next home, get guidance on how to start a community, or simply have a values-aligned vacation. www.ecovillagetours.com Upcoming Trips  Vermont | Jul 19–26, 2025   Italy | Sept 30–Oct 9, 2025   Hawaii | Jan 4–11, 2026   India | Feb 26–Mar 12, 2026  Bali | Jan 26–Feb 4, 2026  Costa Rica: Central | Jan 17–24, 2026 Southern | Feb 4–15, 2026 Caribbean | Mar 21–30, 2026 Guanacaste | April 12–21, 2026 See all the pricing, lodging, and itinerary information on the webpage for each tour. Or explore them all at www.ecovillagetours.com/upcoming-tours. Spots on trips are limited and fill up quickly. Book your spot today!   Questions? Email us at [email protected] Call us at +1 (734) 245-8745 Or schedule a 30-min Discovery Call with our team.   We look forward to hearing from you! Excited to journey together soon, —Cynthia Ecovillage Tours, Founder Hear what many past tour participants have to say about their experience:   “For anyone thinking of joining or starting an intentional community, or an ecovillage, this is an absolute must.” — Adam Bates, tour participant       “I had an amazing time on the tour!  It gave me an opportunity to experience things that I could have never done on my own.” — Lobsterbird, tour participant       “It is an experience worth paying for. You get to know places and people who are on the real hands on effort for bringing change and make local ecosystems more resilient.” — Eduardo Bryce, tour participant
Need
  • Communities with Openings
9 months ago

Seeking Couples Interested in Long Term Deep Connection & Farming (open to singles)

Description Our  sloped and terraced community farm has far more potential than we have time and energy to use to the fullest. We have been in community for 15 years now, but feeling pulled to the deeper nourishment we find in long-term residents over shorter-term interns.  We seek one to two couples (or super aligned singles) who are interested in conscious connection, intimate conversation, personal growth and healing, regenerative agriculture, and serious about a building a life in community.  Although we hold space and flexibility for shifts in needs, we desire humans who plan to stay for all or part of a season (1-3 months at a minimum), after which we would explore longer-term alignment and relationships.  We MAY also be open to folks wanting to live off-site, as long as we prioritize ample time to explore how we work together before we get too deep. Current Use Heart 2 Heart Farms is a small, forested, 10 acre Permaculture farm nestled in the fertile hills of the Willamette Valley. Between the quaint towns of Newberg and Sherwood, this oasis is in the middle of wine country, just 30 minutes south of Portland, has been an intentional community and teaching facility for over 15 years, hosting a myriad of community outreach, up-cycling, homesteading, and prepping workshops.  Although we have recently slowed substantially, residents should be prepared for both a busy environment, and shared, informal, mixed-use spaces. We are almost completely self-sufficient, producing large varieties of heirloom fruits and vegetables, and we breed, butcher, and sometimes sell heritage chickens, turkeys, rabbits, pigs, goats, sheep, and cattle. We tan hides, carve bone, save seed, occasionally blow glass, throw pottery, create alternative/green energy, dig root cellars, and build constantly. We have three large un/under-utilized areas available: The front hill is a terraced and amended south-facing slope that has LOTS of room and potential. We also have a poultry pasture is 2 acres of partially wooded Douglas Fir, an additional 4 acres of wooded mixed use browsing space and native habitat that’s virtually unused at the moment, two large greenhouses (including one set up aquaponically), and lots of space to expand the orchard and rotational grazing system. Additionally, we have a 20’x40′ healing center and sacred space we use for yoga, massage, reiki, ceremony (including traditional Lakota sweat lodge and grief/trauma work), and make available to local practitioners to offer their services to the community. If you are wanting to connect deeply, work hard, learn and expand your experience base, and participate in a small but established intentional community, shoot us a note and let’s explore. Owner’s Short Term Vision for the Property Our short-term goal is to find/train a few young/new farmers to assist with land stewardship and increase productivity of the existing space to spread out the work/responsibility and assist in overall streamlining and cleanup of the existing farm/operations. Owner’s Long Term Vision for the Property Our long-term vision is to continue to use this space as a teaching and educational facility, expanding the diversity and frequency of events we can host and services we can offer. Over the next few years, we hope to find an a couple interested in learning/independently managing most of the farm production, which will allow us to dig deeper into the training and certification we make available, to include natural building, basic and advanced Permaculture technique and application, beekeeping, horticulture, animal husbandry, food preservation, fermentation, plant identification/natural foraging, and primitive skills. Available Water / Irrigation Extensive rainwater collection on site, as well as a high-flow/capacity well. Soil Type / Quality Sandy loam with great organic matter, good clay content, and established vermiculture and mycorrhizal network. Buildings and Structures Available for Farm Use We have multiple barns and greenhouse space for use, or lease, depending on the particulars of use/situation. Farm Equipment Available for Use We have a skid steer on site, as well as rototiller, chipper, 26′ truck, and pickup trucks for use. Hand tools are also available, depending on the arrangement. Any Restrictions That Could Limit Agricultural Production Creating and supporting natural borders, food forests, and wildlife habitat (and incorporating these into a holistic/natural pest management strategy) is a very high priority to us, so intensive mono-crop/large machine harvesting and/or crops needing spraying/chemicals are not likely a fit on this site. County: Washington Total Acreage: 10 Acreage Available to Landseeker: 5 Current Farming Practices: Organic, Not Certified, Biodynamic, Dry Farming, Season Extension Farming Practices Allowed: Certified Organic, Organic, Not Certified, Biodynamic, Dry Farming, Season Extension Agriculture Types Suitable: Beans, Bees, Berries, Dairy, Fiber Animals, Flowers, Goats, Herbs, Hogs, Mushrooms, Nursery Stock, Nuts, Orchard/Fruit, Pasture, Poultry, Rabbits, Sheep, Vegetables, Vineyard, Other
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