CRSP dba Los Angeles Ecovillage Institute (LAEVI)

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LAEVI, a project of CRSp
a resource center for small ecological cooperative communities

Our Mission:
LAEVI is an education, training, outreach, research and development center for people who want to be part of resilient and regenerative communities.

A Little History.  The nonprofit public benefit organization CRSP dba Los Angeles Ecovillage Institute (LAEVI
was founded by Lois Arkin in 1980 as a resource center for cooperatives of all kinds. Over the years, LAEVI’s focus narrowed to cooperative and ecological neighborhoods. ecovillages and intentional communities. By the mid 1990s, the organization’s primary focus was developing the Los Angeles Eco-Village* (LAEV) demonstration neighborhood.  LAEVI continues to provide a variety of resources to the now well established LAEV as well as to other small cooperative ecological communities both locally, nationally, and internationally.  In addition, LAEVI sponsors a variety of public events about more ecological and cooperative urban living patterns.

The LAEVI office and resource library have been located in the Bimini and White House Place  neighborhood  since 1980 (now also the LAEV neighborhood since 1993). The transit-rich area is just a few blocks from the Vermont/Beverly Metro station and three miles west of downtown Los Angeles.  The two-block LA Eco-Village community is in the Wilshire Center/Koreatown/East Hollywood/Rampart Village, and Historic Filipino Town neighborhoods and is home to a multi-ethnic working class population of about five hundred.  It is also within the boundaries of the Rampart Village Neighborhood Council.

After the Civil Unrest of April, 1992, LAEVI decided to put its resources to work in its own problematical neighborhood in a way that could benefit the city at large.  Thus, “Los Angeles Ecovillage”  was established in 1993 as a self-selected place-name for Bimini and White House Place.  Little by little, we envisioned retrofitting the old built-out neighborhood for sustainability.  Prior to this,  LAEVI had been focusing its ecovillage* energy on an 11 acre vacant site in northeast LA where it intended to develop a new construction state of the art sustainable neighborhood.

LAEVI in collaboration with the LAEV Intentional Community members created two additional nonprofit development organizations: the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust (BVCLT) and Urban Soil-Tierra Urbana (USTU), a limited equity housing cooperative.  The nonprofit Cultivating Sustainable Communities was also a partner in developing the Land Trust.

In July 2012, LAEVI transferred ownership of two of its adjacent multi-family buildings to the resident co-op, Urban Soil-Tierra Urbana,  and donated the land underneath those buildings to the BVCLT. The intent of these organizations, in combination with one another, is to secure permanently affordable environmentally sensitive cooperatively structured housing for future generations of low to moderate income households.

In October 2016, LAEVI acquired the old Songs auto shop property on the northern boarder  of the two block neighborhood at Bimini Place and W. 1st Street.  Although originally envisioned as a mixed use ecologically sensitive permanently affordable cohousing development, once the environmental reports were in, that plan was no longer viable for residential development.  And so, it was determined the property would become a Community Hub hosting a variety of activities, including public educational events, our resource library, hosting workshops on a variety of  topics relevant to urban sustainable cooperative living, and most importantly engaging in research for how to remediate the toxic soils on the site so as to avoid digging up the soil and carting it away (there no longer being such a thing as “away” realistically).

All of LAEVI’s transactions thus far have been accomplished without the use of banks, but rather with the help of loans from its constituents via its Ecological Revolving Loan Fund (CRSP-ELF),

Whole Systems Approach. LAEVI applies a whole-systems or permaculture approach to community development, integrating the social, economic and ecological or physical aspects of neighborhood life with the goal of raising the quality of life while radically reducing environmental impacts.  LAEVI intends for its efforts to reduce the burden of government, while increasing local self-reliance in the areas of housing, livelihood, food production, health, energy, water, transportation, recreation, waste processing and education, all while stressing cooperative and collaborative activities for reinventing how we live in the City.

CRSP/LAEVI proudly incubated or provided support to the following cooperative and cooperatively oriented organizations and projects associated with L.A. Ecovillage:

CRSP provides the following services:

  • Use of our resource rich library, by appointment (213/738-1254 or crsp@igc.org).
  •  On-going development of the Los Angeles Eco-Village Demonstration neighborhood.
  • Resource hotline: answers and referrals to your questions about cooperatives, ecovillages, urban sustainability, intentional communities.
  • Public tours of the Los Angeles Eco-Village
  • Monthly electronic  events and news (get on our mailing list by writing crsp@igc.org)
  • Consulting on how to help make your multi-family building or neighborhood become more cooperative and resilient
  • Public events on a variety of sustainable urban living strategies: socially, economically and ecologically.
  • Participation in workshops, trainings, conferences, permaculture events, and fairs to expand public awareness about more cooperative and ecologically sensitive living.
  • Networking and events that strengthen the local eco-neighborhood and intentional community movements.
  • Ecological Community Revolving Loan Fund (ELF) currently focused on continuing development of the LA Ecovillage Community Hub.

Volunteer and Internship Opportunities with CRSP:
If you would like to be a volunteer/intern with CRSP and its Los Angeles Ecovillage Institute, please see contact info below.

There are opportunities for people interested in the following areas:

  • Librarian to maintain our resource rich video and publications materials
  • Neighborhood Outreach (Korean and/or Spanish speaking) for surveys, events, and other activities
  • Grants development, working in collaboration with USTU, BVCLT and/or other local organizations aligned with LAEV values
  • Membership Development and Services
  • Tour guides to accommodate drop-in tours approximately eight hours per month. Must be available on short notice.
  • Coordinate gatherings and Directory for Los Angeles Area Intentional Communities and Gatherings
  • Office support
  • Volunteer coordinator
  • Archivist
  • Liaison between local schools and LAEV
  • Board Members.
  • Work on various aspects of development on our Community Hub property, e.g., bio-remediation of brown field, scheduling, funding development, volunteer coordination
  • Arts coordinator in LAEV

You could also volunteer at L.A. Ecovillage for various types of work parties.  For info, go here

Membership in 
Membership in LAEVI is $35 per year for individuals and $50 per year for organizations. Rates are on a sliding scale basis for both individuals and organizations. No one is turned away for lack of funds. CRSP/LAEVI is a 501.c.3 nonprofit corporation and invites tax-deductible charitable contributions.

Contact info:  crsp@igc.org or 213-738-1254

This page updated Feb. 2023

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