Page 6 - C.A.L.L. #40 - Winter 2015
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Simply Home: A tiny cohousing community grows in Portland
treehugger.com
By Kimberley Mok
May 29, 2015
It appears that a tiny house boom is is now owned by two individuals from
well underway, and along with it the community. However, there are
comes a smattering of emerging tiny plans to change ownership to a multi-
house communities. Whether they member LLC (Limited Liability
are tiny or otherwise, it takes a lot Company).
of work to keep an intentional
community together. Sometimes, And Menard goes into greater detail
despite the best of initial intentions, about how life with a combination of
they can be waylaid by ideological tiny houses and one "Big House"
differences, or poor governance. But works: There’s a big house, where we
when it does work, the rewards can have three people living, and
be great: a sense of belonging, currently we also have a guest room.
purpose and togetherness from Everybody in the community has full
being part of a community can give access to the big house kitchen,
life much greater meaning. dining room, living room, bathroom,
and laundry. That works out really
Tiny house design consultant Lina nicely because we can have game
Menard is part of Simply Home, a nights, we can host dinner parties,
tiny house community that recently we can do movie nights, and when we
got off the ground in Portland, do have guests, they can stay in the
Oregon. Based on a cohousing model, guest room. Then we have four little
Menard and five others share a houses on the property that are
backyard, one-third of an acre in basically acting as “detached
size, in addition to sharing the bedrooms” – a little space of our
1,450-square-foot "Big House" own.
belonging to the land. So far, the
members of Simply Home, whose It seems that the cohousing model is
ages range from 28 to 50, have been working well: each resident has their
planning various amenities like a own private space, but many
communal garden and even a hot tub. facilities and responsibilities are
shared. There's a huge spectrum of
So how did Simply Home Community how sharing and communality can
come about? Menard told us that happen in any intentional community,
someone from a "sub-committee" of and it appears that the cohousing
tiny housers were in the concept is a good fit for the
neighbourhood, looking for land to residents here, giving them a
build a tiny community, and found balance of privacy but still allowing
this large lot with an existing house. them to share resources and
An offer was made, and the property efforts.
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