Page 4 - C.A.L.L. #37 - Winter 2013/2014

House of Commons Community, Canada
The Calgary Herald
By Kerianne Sproule, October 9, 2013
It’s the time of year when people come
together over food. For one night in
October, solitude is taboo, orphans without
local family are adopted, students are
rescued from another night of instant
noodles and live-streaming television, and
life becomes more about a shared
experience than about the serotonin-
infused holiday feast.
If Thanksgiving is about celebrating the
seasonal bounty and building a sense of
community, some Calgarians are taking that
shared spirit to the extreme. Meet Megan
Biggs, a resident of the House of Commons,
an “intentional community” in which co-
habitants commit to living closely with each
other and the surrounding community,
sharing their possessions and meals. “Food
is kind of like the great equalizer,” says
Biggs. “No matter what you’ve done
throughout the day, you all sit around a
table and you eat together.”
Regular community meals, similar to the
lavish home-cooked holiday dinners that
take place several times a year in many
Calgary homes, are essential to the close-
knit fabric of those residing at the House
of Commons. Here, in a four-bedroom
bungalow on a corner lot in Bowness,
housemates cook a free community meal
every Thursday, and up to 30 members of
the northwest neighbourhood drop in to
share it with them.
For many urbanites, “connecting with
community” (a phrase increasingly used to
describe finding and then nurturing one’s
peeps) is just one more time-consuming
task on an overloaded to-do list. But at a
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time when more Canadians are living alone
than ever—27.6 percent of households
have just one occupant, according to the
2012 census, compared to just 7.4 percent
in 1951—a quiet minority is thoughtfully
and deliberately choosing an alternative
lifestyle. Like Biggs, people are seeking a
way to reconnect, to carve out a socially
rich living experience with “chosen
families.” While it may not be a new
trend—communes have been part of North
America’s counter-culture for 200 years—
collective living is a lifestyle that some
young adults in Calgary are exploring.
Calgary’s steep housing prices and tight
rental market likely contribute to
collective living. “It’s not at all surprising
to hear about people trying to share some
of those costs, especially in an environment
where vacancy rates are declining and
rental costs are rising,” says Richard Cho, a
CMHC senior market analyst for Calgary.
Delayed marriage may be a factor, too. In
2008, Statistics Canada reported that the
average age of first marriage is just over
31 years for men and 29 years for women—
six years later than the average age of
nuptials in the late 1960s. Could this
interest in community-style housing have
anything to do with people remaining single
longer, yet still craving deep connection? “I
think it’s fair to say that that’s part of it,”
says Lee Goodman, 33, one of the founders
of the House of Commons and a housing
supervisor at the Mustard Seed’s
Aftercare program. “Without being in a
romantic relationship, there’s still a need
for intimacy [with others].”