Bright communal dining area with wooden tables and chairs, green curtains, and hanging lights.

Swan's Market Cohousing

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Urban

Founding year

  • 1995

What we do

Swan’s Market Cohousing is an urban co-housing community with 20 units, located in the preserved and retrofitted 1917 Swan’s Market building in the historic Old Oakland neighborhood. It is North America’s 50th Cohousing community, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is an award-winning innovative mixed-used historic-preservation project, restoring an abandoned old market building.
In addition to our Cohousing community, Swan’s Market includes affordable rental apartments, retail stores, restaurants, professional offices, public courtyard and is the former home of the Museum of Children’s Art.
All the traditional components of Cohousing are active here, including common meals 3x/week, monthly work parties, and neighbors helping neighbors. Participation and engagement in the community is high, with residents sharing food from our community garden, tools, time, friendship, resources, and skills. Located in the heart of thriving Old Oakland, Swan’s Market Cohousing is 2 blocks from BART, 15 minutes from downtown San Francisco or downtown Berkeley by BART, has a Walkability Score of 98/100 and just about every service you can imagine within a few blocks, including the Farmers Market on Washington & 9th Streets each Friday. Though urban, our outdoor space – “Swan’s Way” – is generously planted with fruit trees, vegetables, and artful patio gardens. Our outdoor table is a community gathering spot.
Community amenities include a 3,500 square foot common house with large kitchen and dining area, kids’ play room, exercise room, laundry, workshop, community garden, guest room, large patio for dining/entertaining. We value our three community meals a week and residents commit to participating in cooking rotations, as well as additional tasks necessary to support the maintenance and self-management of our community.

Our Mission

Urban Cohousing

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

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1995
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2000
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 30 Total members
  • Not open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
34

How to join

Through resale

Basic expectations or agreements for members

If you are interested in a tour of our community, we would be glad to show you around and tell you about this unique project. We have a small guest room in our common house which we reserve for our friends and family, and for residents of other Cohousing communities. Guests are asked for a small donation. —– Please click the “Email This Community” button above to communicate with us and one of our hosts will help coordinate your visit.

Primary decision-making authority

  • All Community Members Together

The whole membership decides collectively.

Decision-making process

  • Full Consensus

Everyone must agree before moving forward.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • 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

Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Yes
common meal preparation, regular work days, ongoing maintenance tasks and and committee meetings.
unit purchase prices $300k and up; rarely available
Homeowners dues $240-$370/mo.

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

Common House, Garden(s), Vehicle Share, Workshop, Swingsets & play areas, Gym or sports area, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • 2-5 times per week

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

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
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Buddhist
  • Jewish
  • Quaker
  • Unitarian Universalist

Gender composition

  • Majority cis (over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Multi-generational (all ages well represented)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Urban

Within city limits with access to urban amenities and infrastructure.

Community type

  • Cohousing

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

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Land area size
    0.3 acres

Guest Book

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

Location

  • California, United States

Needs and Offers

Offer
  • Communities with Openings
7 months ago

Worktrade Opportunities on Big Island Hawaii

We are continuing our work-trade program at Bridge Hawaii for the right people on this beautiful 86-acre land located along the Hāmākua Coast. Ideally, we want to host those individuals who can help with the garden and who can support with build projects for up to a 3 month stay. This work-trade would include lodging, food staples, community kitchen, running hot water showers, off-grid electricity, and laundry. There is access to high speed wi-fi. We often have a car that can be reserved. We also have full bar signal strength with Verizon cellphone service. We have about 2 acres of permaculture garden that needs to be cared for including; weeding, planting, picking up mulch, some tree trimming, ect. We are currently in a building stage on the land. We have a few current grant projects we are working on and some build projects that are underway. We are an intentional community with about 8 permanent residents. There are rescue dairy cows, mini cows, mini donkeys, horses, a donkey, cats, dogs, and active bee hives. We are a drug and alcohol “free” space. A glass of wine or beer with dinner is fine, but absolutely no day drinking or parties. We have a meditation temple and many waterfall pools that are wonderful for swimming. Close to some of the nicest beaches on island. We have snorkeling gear and a kayak. Since this is an animal sanctuary, we limit the consumption of meat on the land. Fish, eggs, honey, and dairy are fine. Let me know if you’re interested by sending an email or text for our application. Maomi (801) 623-0738 ma***@*****************ii.com
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
Offer
  • Forming Communities
1 month ago

Join us in Our Adventure of Co-Creating a Life of Peace, Love, and Abundance Together!

LOOKING FOR OUR NEW FAMILY OF CO CREATORS TO JOIN OUR ADVENTURE! Message us to schedule a visit! More about us and our vision below! Read on and we look forward to hearing from you soon if you feel in alignment with our vision! A forming and co-created spiritually-oriented intentional community and homestead nestled in the beautiful woods of Northern Michigan. We are focused on self-awareness, free and open spiritual/consciousness development, sustainable living, self sufficiency, growing organic food, building small energy efficient homes/dwellings, peace, and freedom in all things. We are looking to build a community of like minded souls that share in our vision of creating a harmonious and sustainable way of life that is close to nature and focused on living from the heart/soul. Seeking kind, compassionate, caring, and emotionally mature souls who are good at non violent communication, resolving conflict peacefully, and working together. The community property is well on its way to sustainability already with a fruit orchard with over 18 apple trees and a variety of plum and pear trees. The property also has 2 very large organic gardens covering around 3 acres in total combined size filled with organic healthy vegetables for community self sufficiency, farm market selling, and food preserving (canning). We have plans to build a couple energy efficient green houses in the near future! We are also getting 30-40 chickens for egg production within the next month. Also considering a couple cows or goats for milk. We currently have 3 houses on the homestead property that are available to new community members for rent or work trade or a combination of both! The main community house has potentially 6 bedrooms available as well. We have plans to build multiple small/tiny homes and cabins in the beautiful woods here for members that are energy efficient and off grid with renewable clean energy/electricity and rainwater harvesting. We are working on a community in

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