Page 20 - C.A.L.L. #42 - Spring 2017

making a living clearly impacts the community’s stability, and some Dunmire members have moved to
the city for employment.

One way intentional communities can help with economic issues is to be able to provide affordable
housing. Songaia, for example, acts as a refuge of relatively affordable housing in the Seattle metro area,
an area which is known for its staggering housing costs. Similarly, Marty feels that one reason Shannon
Farm has lasted for over 40 years is because the economic organization of the community is attractive.
The community has deliberately limited the increase in equity in members’ homes, which keeps housing
relatively affordable. The community also promotes long-term membership by encouraging people to
invest in their homes. Additionally, Marty stresses that the inner peace of individual members and a
sense of peace within the community is nurtured by “having an economic structure that enables the
community to thrive and…to create a good life for its members.” Marty notes that members are able to
separate themselves to some extent from the many pressures of the larger society, particularly the
economic pressures, allowing “more leisure time and less concern about ‘making it’.”

Jenny calls joining Shannon Farm a “lifestyle investment” not a real-estate investment. The location of the
community, which is well situated for finding employment, is another plus that Jenny stresses. It’s not far
(27 miles) to Charlottesville, a metropolitan area of about 150,000 people, home of the University of
Virginia, and cultural hub for the region, and Jenny points out that “commuting to jobs is not a hardship.”

Jenny notes that in the early years, the community came close to folding when “land payments were
high and cash was scarce.” Thankfully, a local bank helped them refinance their mortgage and their
payments dropped to a manageable amount.

This point about the importance of good local relationships leads to the next lesson:

Step 11: A community focused on inner and outer peace works to be good neighbors.
My interviewees stressed that being a community focused on peace and cooperation doesn’t mean you
only practice these values within your borders. Learning to work in a peaceful, cooperative way with
people who have different lifestyles and belief systems may be harder than doing so with like-minded
people but is nonetheless important. This is a lesson that the Lake Village community learned the hard
way but is one they’ve benefited from.

One of the big challenges facing Lake Village over the years has involved
run-ins with neighbors and county building inspectors who didn’t initially
appreciate the unconventional people, unusual practices, and non-
standard buildings in their midst. At one point, the county red-tagged a
large number of the dwellings as uninhabitable, and membership
dropped dangerously low.

Roger said they learned an extremely important lesson from this time
about the importance of being good neighbors, especially “as perceived
by township officials.” He notes that “things have never been better than
now, in so far as we are viewed positively by our neighbors.” The
community not only provides a source of organic produce to the
surrounding area, but it now offers programs for inner-city children to Lakehill Village practices good
experience farm life, learn where their food comes from, spend time in the neighbourliness through
natural world and get their hands dirty. This outreach work appears to be educational outreach.
very meaningful to the community and clearly brings rewards. Roger
concludes that “As we learned to more greatly cherish the surrounding
community, we have received a greater return cherishing.”

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