We've just learned that Mariposa Grove Cohousing founder Hank Obermayer is doing an additional open house from 3-6 PM this afternoon (Sunday) with rentals in his community-connected home in North Oakland, for $625 to $1000 per month.

Mariposa Grove is home to:

• educators, writers, visual artists, healers, musicians
• activists in: worker co-ops, sexual education, science education, therapeutic arts, and urban and sustainable agriculture.
• Kids also thrive here!

Mariposa Grove is made of:

• permaculture and annual gardens, bees, chickens
• shared common house and facilities
• 4 duplexes & triplexes, 3 lots, and (soon to be) 8 households.

Note: We gave first notice of this unique opportunity to EBCOHO's Supporting Members. We rely on the contributions of our members to pay for our outreach, space rentals, and training to make these opportunities possible. Supporting Membership includes a cohousing book, custom cohousing coaching, discounts on events, and sometimes exclusive invites like this - all for just $100 a year (that's less than a movie and a coffee per month). If you're serious about getting into community or deepening your community connections, click here to upgrade your membership today.

The building, formerly known as Willow House (free EBCOHO/MeetUp membership & login required to view) was owned by an Associate Member of Mariposa Grove for several years... it was bought most recently by somebody for that very purpose. It has been linked physically (the properties back up against one another) and socially in many ways, with a great deal of mutual work going into the agreement, and the community hopes to maintain the connection. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 3000 square foot home. More below from the new owner.

The Mariposa Grove cohousing neighborhood is a small, retrofit, permanently affordable limited-equity intentional community, similar in some ways to Berkeley Cohousing and Temescal Creek Cohousing, but a little bit earthier, garden-centered, using existing structures that needed a lot of hard work, smaller, arts and justice oriented.

This is a multistory private home, with many steps involved in visiting the community's Common House, so we don't recommend it for anyone with significant mobility limitations. We don't have a personal stake in it and we are not licensed real estate agents, but we are available to provide Cohousing Coaching to anyone seriously considering applying to join the community, sharing info about the community, and some of the potential and challenges of getting connected this way. Please contact us to learn more.

from my friend Hank:

The community is in North Oakland, just off MLK and an easy walk from Ashby BART. People who come visit will be able to check out the community yard, and hopefully the rest of the community as well, depending on who else living here can talk to people & show them around. Other community members will be part of the process of selecting tenants even though I'm the owner of Willow House.

The Rentals

For now, the place for rent is a shared household with 3-4 bedrooms (one is a double room). Rents will be between $625 and $1000, depending on the bedroom. Rent includes use of almost all of Mariposa Grove's facilities. The owner of the building is me, Hank Obermayer, the founder of Mariposa Grove (I still live here). In another 5-8 months more space will be available, a 2 bedroom apartment that's under (re)construction (better space for a small family). If you want me to let you know when I'm showing the 2-bedroom unit send me an email and I'll let you know when it's almost ready.

We're looking for people who specifically want to live in an intentional community or cohousing community. If you're more interested in the smaller unit (better for a family) let me know and I'll keep track of that for when it's closer to ready

I'm intending that whoever is moving into the first room will collaborate with me choosing occupants for the next room, and all of us together will choose whoever lives in the 3rd room. Since we'll share a lot, everyone already living at Mariposa Grove will be involved in the process as well. We'll all be sharing time, facilities and decisions, so that's important.

The Community, Mariposa Grove

Mariposa Grove has a very homey feel. We eat some of our meals together, share lots of indoor and outdoor space and have a broad mission related to arts, social justice and sustainability. We've been called an ecovillage before, and several of us have permaculture backgrounds. We're fairly DIY-oriented and we do lots of things together, both fun (bbq's, dinners, work parties), not so much (managing finances), and kind of in-between (killing & eating our chickens...). Our indoor shared space includes a cohousing-style common house with a couple guest rooms, art studio, shared office, living room, dining room, kitchen, workshop area, etc. Outdoors we have a firepit, stage, lots of gardens, fruit trees, chickens and bees. Classes happen here. Tours come through. We were on TV a couple years ago. There's a lot going on. Mariposa Grove is an ideal space for hosting events & gatherings. Mariposa Grove is thirteen years old and currently has 9 adults and 4 kids in 6 households with the addition of the new occupants, we will probably reach 8 households and 19 people. The house with the rentals is a duplex, and all those units are currently unoccupied. The largest upstairs Victorian unit is available now. We call that house "Willow House" because of the huge willow tree in the yard. The other homes are are all condos owned by the people who live in them.

About Potential Tenants

The people who live here will all contribute to the collective atmosphere of the community. It's important that those living here have the emotional communication skills to get along well with and work with others.