Page 21 - C.A.L.L. #40 - Winter 2015

multigenerational living used to be the norm, people looking for co-housing
situations today don't mind living with strangers as long as they have the same
intentions, she says. “People are looking for that sort of community,” she says.
“The American dream was that everyone lived in their own homes, but now there
seems to be a readjustment.”

The movement is exploding because baby boomers are tired of the capitalistic,
individualistic way they've been living and are craving a more sustainable,
community way of life, says Joani Blank, 77, of Oakland, Calif., a former board

member at the Cohousing Association of the United States, based in Durham,
N.C.

At Qumbya, the community is split into three houses scattered throughout

Hyde Park, and members range from young children to retirees. It started in
1988 with 15 people and has
grown in the past 25 years to
more than 50, Maniates says.
The co-op is looking for a
fourth house.

Communal vegetarian dinners
are served six nights a week,
and the group usually has
brunch together once a week. John R. Boehm Daniel Koll, Jonah Block-Johnson and
People pay for food, which is Corrigan Nado-Nichols share a meal at Qumbya
purchased communally ($150 Housing Cooperative in Hyde Park.
to $180 a month per person),
and cooking chores rotate. Rents range from $300 to $500 per room.

In Chicago's Gage Park neighborhood, five people are taking the communal
approach a step further, sharing not just meals and chores but work as well.
Consensus Chicago was founded a year and a half ago by an architect, a painter,
a carpenter and two artists—a single man, two single women and a gay couple.

They have rehabbed a 6,500-square-foot building in the Southwest Side
neighborhood to occupy as a work/live space. “There is no separation between
work and life,” says Joshua Gunty, a freelance event producer, audio engineer

and Consensus' founder. “I like living where I work, and we can accomplish more
together. The way the art world is going, it really takes a team.” They negotiate
the distribution of money that comes in according to who brought the business
in and who did the most work on it.

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