Mariposa Grove Cohousing is a democratically-governed community in North Oakland including renters and homeowners.
Continuing to learn from other countries, our director, Lev was able to make a brief visit during a trip to the United States.
The scheme was started in 1998 by founders dedicated to activism, art, and affordable housing, who purchased two suburban houses. Another house was built in the rear garden in 2003. These three houses are split to form six condominium flats. The land was transferred to the Northern California Land Trust, who enforce resale price limits so house prices increase with the area median income and improvements, rather than increasing with market speculation. One of the founders later purchased a house on the parallel street backing on the original houses. This is let as a shared house, which opens out on to the shared gardens, and residents participate in the community life.
The gardens include outdoor dining areas, a chicken coop, and a tree house, and an open under-croft shared workshop and laundry space. The “common house” is a flat with a guest rooms (hosting a deaf student when we visited), an art room, play space, an office, a large kitchen, and dining space. Although each unit has its own kitchen, the large common kitchen/dining space is used for community meals, parties, social justice movie nights, as well as meetings.
There are currently sixteen adults, one teenager and four children living in the community. The importance of social justice, sustainability, and creativity are visible throughout. They share resources and responsibilities and support one another, striving to make decisions that work for everyone and are mindful of the wider community.
There is a lot of interest in living in there, although families must meet the income eligibility criteria.