White Hawk Ecovillage

Affordable CoHousing with Homesteading Focus

NOTE: As of winter 2025, we have THREE home-sites left.  Our membership process is currently on pause to new people in order to give our community some time to get to know the people currently starting the membership process. If you are interested in exploring membership here, please take a moment to join our “interest list“. We’ll then let you know if/when our membership process re-opens in the future.

NOTE: We CANNOT accommodate requests for overnight accommodations or camping. Additionally, we do not offer volunteer or intern opportunities.

We are a group of people from various walks of life building a sustainable neighborhood on 120 acres in Danby, New York, just outside of Ithaca.

We are currently twenty households living in private homes at White Hawk with additional homes under construction and more in the pipeline. When completed, we will have 30 homes sitting on approximately 10 of our 120 acres of farm, field, and forest. All new residents must plan on leasing a lot from the community and building their own home. The fee to lease a lot is $40,000. Homes can typically be built for about $200/ s.f.

We have monthly meetings, use consensus decision-making, and encourage creativity and joyful neighborhood life as we strive to work respectfully with the land to meet as many of our needs as possible. We aim to make our community affordable to all.

Members are free to design their own homes, and are not constrained to a few models selected by a developer. We provide economical and sustainable suggestions for those who would prefer more guidance. Any build style that meets town code, up to and including natural building such as straw bale, cob, cordwood, Earthship or dome would be welcome. The lots are in a circular form around our common circle and a planned common house.

Our community represents a diversity of ages and ethnic backgrounds. We look forward to welcoming new skills, ideas and talents, with the goal of passing down a thriving and resilient village to our children and their children. We envision a homesteading village in which as many of our needs as possible are met right here on our land. We are moving in that direction through personal and community gardens, permaculture projects, an orchard, animal husbandry (over the years we’ve had chickens, ducks, rabbits, horses, pigs, turkeys, sheep, guinea hens and bees) and respectfully using the natural resources we have on the land (through such activities as maple tapping, hunting and wild plant foraging).

Recreating on the land is important to us as well. We have three ponds, a few miles of trails, woods, a playground for the kids, streams to splash in, community garden, and a fire-pit.  We enjoy a vibrant culture of sharing, gift-giving, reciprocity, ritual-building, care, and  fun. Children are a major part of our everyday life here and we do our best to create a community where children are seen, held, supported and a part of the community.

We are “on the grid” with electric, gas, phone and internet, but some residents are moving toward off-grid independence. We encourage home-based businesses and bartering between residents to build local resilience.

Just a stone throw away from the charm of Ithaca, White Hawk is an amazing & supportive community for children and adults to grow, learn, and explore together!