Intentional Community Networking Page                         
Greater Los Angeles Area

updated 5/20/13    Please check contacts: Some listings may not be current.

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What you will find on this Page:
-  Introduction
-  Disclaimer
-  Living in Los Angeles Eco-Village
-  Listings, including apartment Units available in and adjacent to the Los Angeles Eco-Village| neighborhood, and other LA Area Intentional Communities with Openings
-  Other opportunities to rent or buy in ecovillages and intentional communities.
-  Directory: L.A. Area Intentional Communities
-  Homesharers’ Check List
-  Structural Conflict in Community
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Introduction

This page is primarily for those in the greater Los Angeles area who have openings in their intentional communities or are seeking to be part of an intentional community.   You may have or be seeking to be part of a shared house, a cohousing group, a cooperatively owned or organized apartment building or neighborhood,  a start-up ecovillage or the retrofitting of an existing neighborhood to an ecovillage.

You may also be looking for people to loan or invest money in yours or another eco community project.  Or you may be interested in finding persons with discretionary money to use in your  eco community project.   For more information and Directories on intentional communities, cohousing and ecovillages throughout the country and the world, please see www.ic.org and www.cohousing.org and www.ecovillage.org.

We will try to update this page on a regular basis, and work toward making it interactive.

For guidelines on home-sharing, see “Homesharers’ Checklist” below or google <homesharers’ checklist> for more guidelines.

The listings below are in no particular order except that the most recent listings will be at the top of the lists.   Please let us know when you have found one another through this page and/or when you would like to have your listing deleted or revised.

Disclaimer–
Postings on this page may not necessarily reflect the values of CRSP , USTU Co-op, the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust or the Los Angeles Eco-Village Intentional Community.  Since this page is available to the public, neither CRSP nor the Los Angeles Eco-Village can assume any responsibility for how the information is used.  We always recommend that you thoroughly check out and require references that you trust if you are considering any type of investment or loan or house sharing.

Living in Los Angeles Eco-Village Neighborhood
Apartments are available in the Los Angeles Eco-Village neighborhood on a fairly regular basis.  Generally housing in the LAEV neighborhood is at market rate rents.  Community owned buildings (by the Urban Soil/Tierra Urbana Housing Co-op or the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust) may have substantially below market rate rents, but generally require membership in the LAEV Intentional Community in order to be eligible for such housing.  Go here for LAEV-IC member info.

Apartment sizes in the LAEV neighborhood range from singles to two and three bedroom units.  LAEV Intentional Community Membership involves a complex process over a four to six month period or longer. Please be sure you are on our mailing list and get notified of our gatherings.  Contact crsp@igc.org to be added.  See listings below for  other LAEV neighborhood housing opportunities which do not require LAEV Intentional Community membership.

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LISTINGS
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IN L.A. ECO-VILLAGE:

Note about the LAEV listings:   If you choose to follow up on  living within the LAEV two block neighborhood, we hope that you will be enthusiastic about living without private car ownership (we’re very bike and transit oriented; there are close by car rentals, and the possibility of informal car sharing when one is  in need).  We hope you will share LAEV values www.laecovillage.org/values.html and that you want to live more cooperatively and ecologically and that you already have, or are enthusiastic about getting, the knowledge and skills to do so.

Although some of the  listings in the LA Eco-Village neighborhood are not within our intentional community, they are close enough to LAEV that many participation opportunities may be available to you.

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- From time to time, CRSP accepts unpaid internships.   Living expenses  are approximately $800 per month.  Send letter of inquiry and resume to Lois at crsp@igc.org   or call 213/738-1254.

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- Roommate sharing opportunity in large one or two bedroom apartment in community owned building with male roommate.  Spanish speaker helpful.   Rent about $500.  Contact Lois for more info: 213/738-1254 or crsp@igc.org     (on-going)
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Singles available at the Rayfield**(south end of LAEV Neighborhood).  Full kitchens, courtyard, across from Bimini Slough Ecology Park and the Bresee Foundation, and adjacent to Vons at Second and Bimini.  Starting about $850. One year lease.  213/368-1328.   More info here   (on-going) 
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The Chadwich at 209 South Westmoreland Avenue** (LAEV adjacent).  Mainstream resort living:  swimming pools, gyms, lighted tennis and basketball courts, Jacuzzi, and more, adjacent to Bimini Slough Ecology Park, Bresee Foundation and Youth Center, and Vons, Ralphs, Rite-Aid, and, of course LA Eco-Village.   Studios starting at $1,119 plus one and two bedroom $1,295 to $1,815  Check it out at:  http://www.forrent.com/apartment-community-profile/1004381.php           (on-going))

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In Other Los Angeles Area Intentional & Shared Housing Communities:
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From time to time, the Sugar Shack, a longtime Los Angeles artists’ collective community home in the Los Angeles Mid-City area, has room openings. $750 for single occupants, $1000 for couples (double check to make sure rates are current). Includes all utilities, Wi-Fi, and warehouse work space. We are a group of artists, musicians and healers sharing a 10 bedroom Victorian home conveniently located in the middle of Los Angeles. Come enjoy our gardens, roof deck, community room, warehouse and Ping Pong table. No pets.  For more info, email us or call Jill at 305-797-5455.   www.jillettinger.com  www.twitter.com/jillettinger     www.organicauthority.com     www.realitysandwich.com   www.evolverintensives.com   www.cornucopia.org   305-797-5455

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Private ROOM with FULL BATH  AVAILABLE IN GROUP HOUSE
WEST SAN FERNANDO VALLEY – CALIFORNIA

From time to time, this community has vacancies.

RENT: $715 a month + your share of  utilities and food. Tell grocery shopper  what you want bought or be the grocery shopper. Several meals are shared ones and the rest is fix your own from what’s in the fridge.

Penfield House is the home of Terry Lee Brussel, founder and organizer of Live the Dream,  an education and support group for those who, originally inspired by the writings of Robert Heinlein, Robert Rimmer and Marion Zimmer Bradley, are now ready to LIVE such alternative lifestyles as cooperative living, open relationships and group marriage.  Many of our concepts on multiply committed relationships come from Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land and Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  Live the Dream also sponsors a Nest of Church of All Worlds, the real life, over fifty year old spiritual movement inspired by Stranger in a Strange Land.

Our home is a beautiful one in a nice neighborhood of the west San Fernando Valley. It has two fireplaces, a high ceilinged grand living room, dining area and big country kitchen. Washer and dryer available.  We have a clothing optional hot tub which usually has good company available and music of your choice playing in it.  We share good conversation, holidays, outings, special occasions, hugs… and  household chores.

Imagine coming home to a beautiful house, a well kept yard filled with flowers and  trees. Space for a garden if you have a green thumb.   The fire place may be lit if it is winter.    You come home to the smell of something delicious being cooked by one of your housemates. Or perhaps you are the housemate doing that cooking—that nurturing.

You share a good dinner with whoever is at home tonight.   Afterward, you might  enjoy  the massage chair,  go to the privacy of your room, soak in the hot tub with good friends,  join a lively discussion in the living room or cuddle by the fire.   Sound good?

MAKE YOUR FANTASY A REALITY…

If you have an interest in living in a lovely home with warm, caring, like minded people, call (818) 886-0069 ext 3 for more information.

If you are really up to it  physically, you could reduce your rent by $420 a month as I’m  paying  a maid $105 a week for 7  hours of  mopping, vacuuming, scrubbing the kitchen and doing quite a bit of laundry. I am not suggesting taking that on unless you really like that sort of thing…

Three cats in residence.    NON SMOKING ABSOLUTELY

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From time to time, there are openings in this community:
Highland Park.  HM157 occasionally seeks a resident to fill a vacancy.  Rent about $550 per month plus $550 deposit (includes utilities). We are an artists’ collective that is focused on making the world a better place through music & art. We teach self-sufficiency & use ecologically-minded practices as much as possible. Our living and working space consists of a large Victorian house and three mobile homes in back.  We Seek tidy, organized, easygoing team player types with skills to contribute to our artist cooperative collective. Please, no moody/grouchy types.  We will ask for references. Also, NO hard drugs or heavy drinking and no couples (sorry, it’s a space issue). To Apply:  Fill out the application at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?authkey=CIqA1I4P&pli=1&formkey=dFFLWmtTSWhvQmp1dnpNVVpmT29pNlE6MQ#gid=0  and then make an appointment to see the place by emailing: hmonefiftyseven@gmail.com.  We look forward to hearing from you. Please check out our website for more info on the collective. www.hm157.com
LOCATION:
HM157:  3110 N. Broadway   Lincoln Heights (LA!)   90031  www.hm157.com

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Westside Community, Mar Vista
From time to time, this community has rooms available in their large home on the Westside

The MASTER BEDROOM w/private full bath – $975 a month plus utilities.

Technicolor Tree Tribe (A house on 28th and Vermont near USC in LA)

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LA Area Intentional Communities Directory (updated 2/23/12)

If you are an intentional community and want to be added to this list, please email me with your contact info:  Lois: crsp@igc.org
I know there are many more intentional communities right here in the LA area, especially in Silverlake, Echo Park, Highland Park and Pasadena.
Let’s start getting together more regularly, sharing stories, policies, problems, referrals.  For a comprehensive directory of intentional communities throughout the U.S. and the world, see www.ic.org

Here are the communities I (Lois) am familiar with:

Los Angeles,  Silverlake:  Aglago House:  http://www.aglago.org/  <udayara1@gmail.com>

Los Angeles, West Adams District: Synchronicity LA:  http://www.synchronicityla.com/

Los Angeles, Central West:  Sugar Shack:  http://directory.ic.org/20457/The_Sugar_Shack

Los Angeles, USC area, Ellis Island:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/03/local/me-hippies3

Los Angeles, Koreatown/Wilshire Center/East Hollywood:  Los Angeles Eco-Village:  www.laecovillage.org

Los Angeles, westside:  Gaia Sangha:  http://directory.ic.org/21937/Gaia_Sangha

Los Angeles, central city:  Synchronicity  http://directory.ic.org/22174/Synchronicity_LA

Los Angeles, Technicolor Tree Tribe, USC area http://technicolortreetribe.wordpress.com/

Mar Vista:  Westside Community:  http://directory.ic.org/1801/Westside_Community

Pico Rivera:  Windchime House:  http://en.wordpress.com/tag/windchime-house/

Pomona: Regen Co-op of Pomona:  http://www.regen.org/

Silverlake:  Aglago House:  http://www.aglago.org/

Topanga:  Topanga Ecovilage.  Contact Geofrey Collins  310 455 1341

Ventura:  La Ancla- Ventura:   http://directory.ic.org/22439/La_Ancla__Ventura  and http://laancla.blogspot.com/

Ventura:  Ventura Urban Homestead Cooperative htt:  http://directory.ic.org/22493/Ventura_Urban_Homestead_Cooperative_htt

Santa Monica Cohousing Group (forming):  http://santamonicacohousing.com/

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Shared by CRSP     117 Bimini Pl. #221     Los Angeles CA 90004     213/738-1254     crsp@igc.org          www.laev.org
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Structural Conflict in Community

Learn more about what it is and how to deal with it in Diana Leafe Christian‘s books:
- Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools for Starting Ecovillages and Intentional Communities
and
- Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community

If you live in or are considering moving to an intentional community, make sure it is free of Structural Conflict:

1.  Identify the community vision and make sure there are vision documents
2.  Make sure there is a fair, participatory decision making process appropriate for the group.  And if it is consensus, make sure everyone is trained in it, and that the community offers training opportunities.
3. Make sure their are clear agreements, and that they are in writing.
4. Make sure there is an emphasis in the community on good communication and group process skills,  that there is a conflict resolution process in place, and that the community makes conflict resolution a high priority.
5.  Make sure that the members have a safe level of emotional maturity
6.  Make sure there is a good balance of head skills and heart skills in the community..

Well, every community may not have all this down perfectly, but they should be working on moving toward resolving any of these issues.