photo by Anna Tarazevich
CooperativeLivingCommunities is set up to support the creation of residential intentional communities of diverse sizes, missions, and values. Most people interested in intentional community believe that diversity can be a strength, by bringing multiple perspectives and capacities together. However, some people in demographics that have been at times marginalized by the larger society understandably feel that the place they call home is most welcoming when filled with people who share their lived experience and subculture. It is illegal to make race and ethnicity a barrier to housing rental or purchase. However, forming a group and then finding housing together is acceptable. In the steps below, read more on this topic.
Steps to build a ethnic culture-focused intentional community
- If you are planning a service-based or equity-oriented community, make sure your founders team has a member of the specific ethnic group you intend to serve. This ensures that you have intimate and consistent understanding of challenges faced by people from historically marginalized ethnic cultures.
- If you are inspired by the topic of equity for Black, indigenous, and people of color, you can indicate this interest in your ICmatch profile responses. In the first profile category Community Type, for the IC types question, select the item ethnic culture-focused. Further, ICmatch has resources listed below that can help you respectfully describe what you believe will work for your community.
- Make sure you are capable of staying in compliance with fair housing law in your jurisdiction. You may need to ensure that designating residences for a historically marginalized ethnic cultural group is not in violation. Typically, if you are planning residence in a specific neighborhood with high percentage of the ethnic group you seek to serve, they are likely to self-select. If your organization has non-profit status with a mission specifically including reparations, cultural affirmation, or language immersion, this may allow you to selectively recruit.
- Plan whether you are going to provide services, in addition to housing, that may be needed by the population served.
- If you plan on additional services, you might add to your leadership team or advisory board someone who has worked in a related non-profit and is familiar with the challenges of those serving and served.
- Use ICmatch.org to build up your core leadership team and other values-aligned volunteers who might work on site in exchange for room and board.
- Create your business plan for culturally affirming housing, then look for grant proposals that match (see Resources section below). To be eligible for more grants, you might team up with a non-profit or government office that works with the population you are committed to create housing for.
Examples
The following examples focus on student housing, because these are the most prevalent examples of housing focused on an ethnic or language group.
Indigenous students: The University of Alberta, University of Oregon, and University of Minnesota offer student housing that specifically serves this group.
Latino Living Center: Cornell University provides this housing with culturally-relevant activities. Similarly Casa Latina at Knox College houses students committed to sharing their culture with others on campus. Considered a cultural center, it offers a location to practice the Spanish language.
Black Affinity Housing: Western Washington University states this program “does not discriminate on the basis of race,” but heir goal is “fostering a sense of belonging for all residents by creating a safe environment for open, honest, and sometimes challenging dialogue, to assist members of historically marginalized identities in supporting each other.”
Living Energy Farm: In addition to inventing harvesting machines, these folks create and sell durable, decentralized renewable energy systems.
