Village Hill Cohousing sign on a large rock with trees in background.

Village Hill Cohousing

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Suburban

Founding year

  • 2014

What we do

Village Hill Cohousing (VHC) is an inclusive, multi-generational community with 28 homes located one mile from the vibrant downtown area of Northampton, Massachusetts, next to Smith College, and adjacent to wooded conservation land.
Camaraderie, personal growth, mutual support, shared work and governance, and ecologically sustainable practices – together with personal privacy – are among the major benefits Village Hill Cohousing offers.
For those seeking social interactions, co-housing can offer an antidote to isolation. For those who are more private, our individual units, many with self-contained porches, provide the perfect refuge from the demands of a busy world.
Walking and bike paths, coupled with nearby bus routes, make VHC the perfect location for families and individuals who want to live lightly on the land in a forward-thinking larger community.
About Village Hill Cohousing: The entire infrastructure of the Village Hill Cohousing site is energy-efficient construction, balancing a greatly reduced ecological impact with sustainability and livability.
CORE VALUES
We believe that…
Living in community is a healthy antidote to loneliness and isolation.
Social interactions with neighbors engender understanding, encourage growth, and create greater tolerance and respect for “the other.”
A diverse, multi-generational community is a healthy community.Energy-efficiency, whether it be in our private homes or in common areas, is a win/win for everyone.Green spaces, like our vegetable and flower gardens and our access to trails through the adjacent conservation land, are not only good for the environment, but good for the soul too.
FEATURES OF VHC
Twenty eight stand-alone and/or semi-attached units of varying sizes and prices • A short walk or bike ride to downtown Northampton • Close to restaurants, entertainment, arts, music, education (hub of the “Five-College” area) • Close to bike rail trails, hiking, snowshoe and cross-country ski trails, waterways, and many rich opportunities for outdoor activities • Local bus line stop and rail trail spur are in the neighborhood • Bus and Amtrak service to major cities; 45-minute drive to Bradley International Airport • Centrally located in New England: about 4.0 hours to New York City, less than 2 hours to Boston.
ABOUT NORTHAMPTON
A city of 30,000 people, Northampton is a unique and special blend of urban and rural, historic and contemporary, intellectual, artsy, athletic, and entrepreneurial energy. The Pioneer Valley hosts five colleges and universities.
For more information, visit: http://villagehillcohousing.org http://www.northampton-k12.us http://www.explorenorthampton.com http://www.visitnorthampton.net http://www.northamptonma.gov
If our shared values of compassionate living, sustainability, community and connection resonate with you, we look forward to speaking with you.

Our Mission

VILLAGE HILL COHOUSING is a diverse, multi-generational community that values respect and generosity towards one another and the wider community in which we live. We also have a particular reverence for the land within our six-acre campus and in the beautiful surrounding areas. Members welcome a diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, sexual orientation, gender expression and socioeconomic status.

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Activities
  • Property management

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2014
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2019
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 45 Total members
  • Not open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
54

How to join

Living in an intentional community offers great benefits, but also requires serious commitment and a willingness to meet specific expectations around work, governance, and participation. It isn’t necessarily for everyone. To help you figure out if VHC may be a good fit for you, we offer a checklist of actions below you can take to get to know us, as well as areas or issues worth exploring more carefully.
When a home at VHC becomes available, purchasing priority will be given to current members and people in the Interest Pool. To ensure that prospective buyers are both informed and committed, here are the steps you need to become a part of the Interest Pool:
1, Read the Information Packet. 2. Write a Statement of Interest (with separate ones for every adult member of the prospective household). Send the statement to in**@******************ng.org 3. Attend at least one monthly Full Circle meeting. 4. Talk to one member of Outreach and at least five members of the community. After submitting your Statement of Interest we will send you information about members to contact. 5. Indicate your willingness to sign VHC Member Agreement.
To arrange a visit and get the process of joining the Interest Pool underway, please contact ou******@******************ng.org or go to https://www.villagehillcohousing.org/village-hill-cohousing/joining/ for more information.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Please email us at : in**@******************ng.org

Primary decision-making authority

  • All Community Members Together

The whole membership decides collectively.

Decision-making process

  • Consent-Based (Sociocracy)

Decisions proceed unless someone has a reasoned objection.

Governance structure

  • Sociocratic/Circle-Based

Organized in circles or domains with distributed authority.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • There is a one-time fee, investment, or share purchase to join the community separate from accessing housing
  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Join fee: Yes
Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Yes
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
• Required labor contribution: Yes. Adults who are physically able are expected to work 10 hours per month

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Large Scale Kitchen, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Gym or sports area

Frequency of communal meals

  • About once a week

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Community activities and engagement

  • Neighborhood, Community Housing, or Homeowner's Association

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure
  • Substance use is prohibited in the community

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By several individuals through an LLC or a Tenancy In Common agreement

Setting

  • Suburban

Residential areas outside city centers but within metropolitan regions.

Community type

  • Cohousing

    Private homes with shared common facilities, designed for neighborly
    interaction while maintaining independence.

Self-produced energy

  • 33 - 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • Over 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    6 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Massachusetts, United States

Needs and Offers

Offer
  • Communities with Openings
1 month ago

Rooms in Beautiful Location in downtown East Austin

Mountain Laurel House has upcoming room openings on August 1 and September 1 to share our house in central East Austin close to downtown. Rent is $925 per month with $75 to cover your share of the utilities and maintenance. You provide your own food. We enjoy sharing a meal at the dining table at least once a month for fun, to check in on our lives, and talk about housekeeping together. To apply, email do*************@***il.com with subject line Room at Mountain Laurel House. Request the brief application questions and we’ll provide more info and answer your questions. Mountain Laurel House is in a great location! It’s on a green cul de sac, with a wooded lot to the southwest and a green open space to the west. It’s close to the East 11th & Rosewood dining and entertainment district and right across from the Carver Library and a bus stop. We’re in walking distance to downtown Austin, the State Capitol, Huston-Tillotson University and a short bike or bus ride to the University of Texas; and, south or east of here, Lady Bird Lake and Boggy Creek hike and bike trails, park lands, swimming pools, pickleball and basketball courts. I kayak on Town Lake aka Lady Bird Lake or swim just across downtown at Deep Eddy or Barton Springs fresh-water, spring-fed swimming pools. We enjoy sharing a meal at the dining table at least once a month for fun, to check in on our lives, and plan housekeeping together. HEB is a short 5 minute drive east on 7th St. and Whole Foods is about a ten minute walk from here on 5th St. Amenities in the house include a dishwasher, utility room with a clothes washer-dryer and an optional clothesline, high-speed internet, a big dining room table for meals or activities, and a large screen TV for movie nights. The yard has beautiful native wildlife habitat gardens, veggie and herb pots, a large Cedar Elm, two Live Oaks, a fruit-bearing Fig, a Champenelle grape vine, and a Chili pequin. The cul de sac is a large park-like
  • Promoted
Offer
Offer
  • Marketplace
6 years ago

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves Books for Sale

Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, Charles Durrett and Kathryn McCamant introduce Cohousing with stories and pictures of both Danish and American communities. Beautiful photographs and line drawings illustrate the warmly written account of how these communities came to be. Specific information on legal and financial aspects of working with developers, group process, and design issues make this book informative as well as inspiring. This is the book which brought Cohousing to North America. This book is the much prized second edition which has become a rarer and somewhat of a collectors item. Its community case studies were not included in the more recent publication. It preceded Creating Cohousing which is widely available. I acquired 25 cases from a local distributor who closed down. If you would like three or more copies for yourself, to share with your friends or to market your group, please let me know. I would love for them to be made useful and find great homes. Books are paperback (hard copy was not an option at the time from the publisher) all brand new, in Oakland (CA) so could be picked in Oakland or mailed to you. I would very much like to recuperate what I paid which is $10 per book. So, If you would like three or more shipped, I will add the postage, packing and handling fees. I have sold several cases (18 books per case) for $150 per case ($8 per book). I have a little wiggle room on the pricing. Please let me know if you are interested. Use the Send Message button on this page.
Need
  • Communities with Openings
3 years ago

Twin Oaks, an established, income-sharing, village-scale community is seeking new members

Twin Oaks is looking for new members! Founded in 1967, Twin Oaks is an egalitarian, income-sharing community made currently 70 adults and 15 kids, living on 500 forested acres in central Virginia. Twin Oaks has strong social justice values including feminism, racial justice, and queer culture. We host a Queer Gathering and Women’s Gathering each summer, and we have a number of working groups around racial justice issues in general and in an intentional community context. Please visit our website twinoaks.org for more information and directions on how to apply for a Visitor Period. A Visitor Period is the first step towards becoming a member. We can offer: your choice of full-time work in our income-sharing community businesses (heirloom seeds, hammocks, and others) and/or domestic work areas from organic gardening to milking cows and cheese-making to office work to technical jobs and more! an individual room in shared housing; each member has their own personal bedroom and shares a kitchen, living room and bathroom with others in their house. Each residence has its own culture and range of ages. all meals are provided in our communal dining hall and/or in smaller kitchens for individual eating. We generally accommodate all special diets. (gluten-free, vegan, no garlic, etc.) income-sharing includes health-care and monthly stipend for extra We are looking for: people with various life skills and/or a willingness to learn people who share our values of social justice, sustainability and living closely with a diversity of people people with a generally responsible and pro-active approach to community living experience or interest in non-hierarchical, shared decision-making BIPOC, women and non-binary people especially encouraged The first step towards becoming a member is to participate in one of

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