Welcome to Golden Gate Cohousing!

We are a new community in northwest Oakland, which is in the process of expanding. We are located at 1072 and 1066 60th Street, a block east of San Pablo Avenue, near the juncture of Oakland, Emeryville and Berkeley. We currently have six adult residents and two half-time kids living in one of the two houses (the west house) in our compound. The east house is still to be renovated and occupied, which will be the next major phase in our project.

We hope this page will give you some useful information about our community, and help you determine if you might like to know more. If so, feel free to contact us with any questions you may have, or to be placed on our e-mailing list to receive updates on our progress and invitations to our events.


Upcoming Events

To be announced!


Current Residents

We presently have six adult residents, ranging in age from 26 to 63, and two young girls who live with their parents half time in the community. We are engaged in a wide range of pursuits, including holistic healing and counseling, property management, painting contracting, flower delivery, teaching, green architecture, university studies, consulting, and social and environmental activism.

Several of us have been active volunteers with the PLACE for Sustainable Living, which we see as a partner in our mission to live sustainably on the earth and also to promote these values to the population at large.

We hold community meetings once a week; prepare and share meals together and socialize at least once a week; are increasingly engaged in one another’s lives; and are moving toward collectively managing all aspects of the community and the property.


The Property

Golden Gate Cohousing’s property consists of two adjacent late 19th century Victorian houses in the historic Golden Gate neighborhood.

1072 60th Street (the west house):

• Six apartments: three studios and three one-bedrooms
• Two of the studios have 11 foot ceilings with sleeping lofts
• Common space with a living room, guest bedroom, kitchen, bath and laundry
• Common space is available for shared meals, meetings, community gatherings, etc.

1066 60th Street (the east house):

• Three apartments presently, although the house may be lifted and expanded to provide more space
• Presently unoccupied
• Extensive renovations should be finished by late 2012

The Grounds:

• Provide a large area for gardening, recreation, etc. (see list of Uses below)
• Extensive landscaping; many palm trees and a towering redwood
• Roof deck (on 1072) has panoramic view of hills and bay
• Decked patio with hot tub


Our Values and Ideas about the Community

Values. The following list of values is the result of a brainstorm session we conducted to identify what we hold dear and in common as a group. It may help to give a sense of what we’re about.

Joy, health & wellness, communal food, shared meals, compassionate communication, family, community, sustainability, homesteading, permaculture (earthcare, people care & fair share) self sufficiency, zero waste, creativity, art, peaceful, sense of place (bioregion, watershed), education, holistic practice, participatory, egalitarian, transparency, accountability, integrity, inter/multi-generational, diversity, tolerance, celebration, environmental stewardship, love, alternative economies, sharing leadership, sharing resources, non-dual consciousness, 5 R's (Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle, Redistribute, Rot), incubation, artistic & ecological embellishment of space, natural building, edible landscape, neighborhood relations/activation, conflict resolution, supportive environment for youth development, entrepreneurial cottage industry, neat & clean, animal & chemical sensitivities, sanctuary, sacred, edible and medicinal gardens.

Uses. Likewise, a group brainstorm produced the following list of ways that we envision using the common areas of the community compound, and should give a flavor of what we hope to be doing here.

Art space, commercial kitchen, mixed use room, monthly dinner for extended community, regular social gatherings, meetings, shop space, guest rooms, shared office, healing & spiritual practice space, movement space, library, apothecary, pantry, hot tub, sauna, outdoor shower, garden shed, natural building, bike parking, bike maintenance, cob oven, cob bench, fire pit, outdoor gathering, garden, wheelchair accessible bathroom, laundry services, children play space, fort, music room, green house, nursery, pond.

Our mission and vision statements are under construction, and will be posted here as soon as they’re ready.


Organizational and Financial Structure

Golden Gate Cohousing is a project of the Parker Street Foundation, a non-profit organization whose purpose is to “promote affordable housing and effective community.” We have financed Fort Awesome and Fort Radical, two environmentally oriented houses owned by the Cooperative Roots project; also Oregon Park Senior Apartments (61 units), all in south Berkeley; and the Purple House in north Oakland. All three are 501(c)(3) non-profits.

To support the Foundation’s aim of providing affordable housing, and to discourage equity speculation, we have decided not to sell the apartment units on the open market, as many cohousing communities do. Instead, we have opted for a non-profit and rental model, which we envision unfolding as follows:

1. Initially, residents will rent their apartments from the Parker Street Foundation.
2. As soon as possible, residents will collectively form their own non-profit.
3. Residents’ non-profit will either purchase or lease (long term) the property.
4. At that point, the Foundation’s role will be simply that of a lender or lessor.
5. Residents will then rent their apartments from the non-profit collective, whose members will be the residents themselves.
6. The non-profit will be owned collectively, not individually. No one will have an equity interest.
7. People moving in will pay first and last month’s rent and one-month security deposit.


Contact Us

Please send inquiries to:

Jeff Billings: jeffreycbillings@yahoo.com or
Jack Sawyer: jacksawyer@comcast.net