Friends' Cooperative House

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Home-sharing
  • Urban

Founding year

  • 1967

What we do

Founded in 1967, Friends was established with a commitment to cultivating a vibrant community based in collaboration and mutual support. The co-op moved to our current location near the capitol in 2022. Our cooperative community is brought together by a sense of playfulness and inclusiveness. These values stretch all the way back to Friends’ evolution out of a Quaker cooperative housing community. In recent years, the house has attracted a diverse group of students and young professionals. We enjoy working together to find creative solutions to problems both informal and formal decisions. We endeavor to find consensus in the decisions we make during house meetings, and we work to make sure that all members of the household feel heard and valued.
Our current house is located in the Downtown neighborhood two blocks from the capitol and the E. Washington shopping district. Room sizes range from 115-165 square feet. The house has two accessible rooms. We do our best to prioritize these rooms for those with physical disabilities.
House members contribute a required five hours of their time each week for chores such as cooking, washing dishes, cleaning common spaces, gardening, paying bills, grocery shopping, serving as a house representative for various committees of Madison Community Cooperative, and many other jobs that go towards the upkeep and continuance of the household. Membership at Friends includes a food share, and house members often enjoy cooking for the house as part of their work hours. When cooking for the house, members always include a vegetarian or vegan option.

Our Mission

Cooperative Living, Community

  • Purpose
  • Home-sharing
  • Community type
  • Coliving
  • Student Co-op

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1967
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 1967
  • Started living together
  • 10 Total members
  • Not open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
10

How to join

  • Fill out our questionnaire.
  • Keep in mind that your responses to this form may be shared with the house, minus personal information.
  • Send us an email to let us know you filled out the form and are interested.
  • After reading your responses, we will set up an initial video call, phone call, or in-person meeting with our Membershipping Coordinator, where you can ask questions about Friends and we can get to know you.
  • After this call, you may be invited for further meeting(s) in person at the house (or via video call) to meet all other house members.
  • If you decide you are still interested in membershipping, we will hold a vote at our next house meeting to decide whether to allow you to become a member.

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

  • 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: $200
Regular fees: $100
Labor: Yes (5 hrs/week)
Should expect the rough equivalent of five hours per week.
Rent ranges from $500-$700 per month depending on room size

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

Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • About once a week

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure
  • Substance use occurs primarily at celebrations or ceremonies

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Mixed adults (few or no children)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • Other

Setting

  • Urban

Within city limits with access to urban amenities and infrastructure.

Community type

  • Coliving

    Shared living spaces with private bedrooms/bathrooms and communal
    kitchens, dining, and social areas.

  • Student Co-op

    Cooperative housing primarily for students, often with shared chores,
    meals, and democratic decision-making.

Self-produced energy

  • Up to 33%

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%
  • Land area size
    .2 acres

Guest Book

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

Location

  • Wisconsin, United States

Friends' Cooperative House

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
4 days ago

Beautiful 3+ Bed, 2.5 Bath Townhome in Established West Emerald CoHousing, Seattle

A rare home is available at West Emerald Cohousing, an established all-ages intentional community in West Seattle. For those considering a move to the Pacific Northwest—or hoping to join a mature community rather than one still in the forming stages—West Emerald offers decades of community life, beautiful gardens, shared resources and a peaceful setting within the city in a convenient location since 1999. This unit has a unique floor plan that is ideal for co-buying, co-living, or for one household. The home itself offers a flexible 3+ bedroom, 2.5 bath layout: Garden-level room with a separate exterior entrance and half bath—ideal for a home office, studio, guest space or client-facing business Main-level bedroom and full bath, laundry, making one-level living possible Open great room with large windows overlooking gardens filled with birdsong Well-designed kitchen with generous storage and pantry Two additional light-filled spacious bedrooms and a full bath upstairs Thoughtfully maintained and updated Located at the end of a common pathway for added privacy and garden views, Just feet from parking, which is out of view West Emerald community amenities include: Common House with gathering and activity spaces Community meals and events Mature gardens and shared outdoor spaces Workshop/maker spaces and bike barn Exercise room EV charging opportunity Excellent Metro access to Downtown Seattle just minutes away Nestled into a dell, it’s Seattle’s best-kept secret South Seattle College and lifelong learning, NW Wine Academy, the Seattle Chinese Garden are nearby, with easy access to Alki Beach, Lincoln Park, magnet schools, ferries, and the shops and restaurants of the West Seattle Junction. 6000 17th Ave SW, Seattle, WA Is a wonderful opportunity to have your own comfortable, private home while becoming part of a vibrant and well-established Seattle all-ages cohousing community. For more information contact the friendly Realtor at 206-579-9066, or at ki**********@**********te.com who will be happy to meet you there or do a facetime tour.
Offer
  • Communities with Openings
2 days ago

Unit C-2, Woodard Lane Cohousing — Olympia, WA

We are looking for renters and buyers who truly want to participate fully in a community living situation; to collaborate, share meals, attend meetings, share stewardship of our grounds and buildings, socialize, and share spaces including the Common House, guest rooms, tools, Center Green, vegetable garden, and more. Unit C2 is available for rent or for sale. Unit C2 Unit C2 has functioned as two units since its beginning. The lower level is currently occupied. It’s ideal if you desire ground floor ease of entry — as owner, you can live comfortably in half and rent out half. C2 For Rent (ground level) — $1,900/month Short term rental agreement with 90-day notice; includes utilities. Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or 360-789-7587 925 square feet One bedroom One bathroom Bonus room/office with loft bed Open kitchen, dining room, living room Deck view of forest Front yard garden C2 For Sale (entire unit) — $630,000 Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or 360-789-7587 1,904 square feet total (each level is 952 SF with a full kitchen and private entrance) 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a laundry room Ground floor entry with no steps Two back decks that face a wooded ravine The upstairs living space is an open kitchen, dining room, and living room The lower level has a full kitchen, two bedrooms, and a separate entry Upstairs has a large bedroom with closets, and a bonus room with a full-sized loft bed Monthly dues are currently $799.00, including all utilities (electricity, gas, water, sewer, garbage) plus a healthy contribution to the reserves fund See flyer for more details
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
2 weeks ago

Co-housing Unit For Sale in Portland Oregon

Light-filled 976 sq ft, 3-bedroom, 1-bath end unit in Columbia Ecovillage, Portland’sestablished cohousing community in the Cully neighborhood. With windows onthree sides, this ground-floor home gets natural light all day, even onPortland’s grey ones. The open living and dining area has warm hardwood floors and flows into akitchen with solid wood cabinets and granite counters. The dining roomwindows look straight into a native vine maple — a wall of green from springthrough fall. There’s good storagein the unit, plus an extra storage space in the community storage building.A ductless mini-split provides efficient heating and air conditioning, andthe plumbing was fully replaced in 2026. The primary bedroom has a full-width closet behind a sliding barn door; thesecond bedroom’s closet sits behind a pair of French doors. The thirdbedroom has no closet, which makes it a flexible room — guest room, office,or playroom. Step out the sliding glass door onto your own covered patio, which opens onto the community grounds: organic gardens, personal garden plots,greenhouses, a grape arbor, a bamboo grove, native plantings throughout, andtrees everywhere — including a truly massive old black walnut. The orchard alone is a reason to live here — to name a few:apples, pears, plums, figs, mulberries, chestnuts, walnuts, grapes,blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, in several varieties each. A75,000-gallon rainwater catchment system keeps it all watered through thesummer. Kids have a playhouse, sandbox, small soccer field, a favorite climbingtree, and a parking loop where bikes can circle but cars can’t; adults havea workshop, garden shed, fire pit, quiet space and big community porches. The common hall is the heart of the village: a commercial kitchen anyresident can use, a kids’ play area, pool table and ping pong, and asoapstone stove that burns every winter evening. Residents can reserve it forevents for almost nothing. The historic farmhouse has guest rooms owners canbook for visiting family (about 30 nights a year). Shared laundry rooms(three washers and dryers) come with indoor drying racks and outdoorclotheslines, and there’s a craft room and a trade room where things you nolonger need find a new home next door. Potlucks, communitymeals, work parties, and acres of safe space for kids to roam makethis a rare chance to own a home and a neighborhood at the same time. Built in 1973 and fully remodeled in 2008–09 for energy efficiency and healthy indoor air — metal roof, HardiePlank siding, and standard community-built finishes throughout. Nothing to update, nothing deferred. The $522 monthly HOA coverswater, sewer, and garbage, plus the roof, siding, exterior paint, and allstructural maintenance — and it’s what pays for the grounds, the common hall,and everything else described above. And it’s close in: Cully’s cafés andparks are a short walk or bike ride away, the rest of Portland’s food,music, and neighborhoods are minutes beyond that, and the commute downtownor to the airport is easy by car, bus, or bike – 3.7-acre grounds with organic gardens, personal plots, greenhouses, native plantings, and mature trees (huge black walnut)- Orchard: apples, pears, plums, figs, mulberries, chestnuts, walnuts, grapes, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries- 75,000-gallon rainwater catchment feeds the gardens year-round- Workshop, garden shed, fire pit, quiet space, community porches  
  • Events
2 weeks ago

Coastal Regeneration Immersion: Permaculture Design Certification in Jalisco, Mexico

Tropical Dry Forest Permaculture Design & Regenerative Stewardship Certification (PDC)12-Day Intensive | 120 Hours | Costalegre, Jalisco, Mexico Join us for an immersive Permaculture Design Certificate course set in the tropical dry forest bioregion of coastal Jalisco. This 120-hour intensive blends internationally recognized PDC curriculum with hands-on regenerative practice — combining ecological design, agroforestry, natural building, and community stewardship into one integrated learning experience. Lead Faculty Jorge Luis Gtz. Olarte (Arborescencia RedGenerativa) – Regenerative Design, Soil Biology & Agroforestry Ozzy Lusth (Survior & Xochiraíz) – Wilderness Resilience & Survival Skills Dave Collins (Capacha Coastal Conservation Center) – Bioarchitecture & Ecological Development What You’ll LearnThe course moves through six progressive phases: Permaculture & Ecological Literacy – ethics, principles, and reading the tropical dry forest landscape Water & Soil Systems – keyline design, water harvesting, living soils, and compost systems Horticulture – food garden design, propagation, and biological pest control Regenerative Food Systems – tropical agroforestry, food forest design, and guild planting Ecological Infrastructure – bamboo bioarchitecture, bioclimatic farm design, compost toilets, greywater, and rocket stoves Integrated Design Studio – team-based final design projects covering watershed strategy, agroforestry, food forest layout, infrastructure, and phased implementation Daily RhythmMornings begin with optional surf/yoga and journaling, followed by field practicums and hands-on workshops. Afternoons include design studio and construction lab work, with reflection circles, communal dinners, and evening talks, films, or campfire discussions rounding out the day. Final ProjectParticipants work in teams to produce a full regenerative design package — landscape analysis, water plan, agroforestry design, food forest plan, ecological infrastructure, and bioclimatic farm plan — presented to a faculty review panel on the final day, followed by a closing ceremony, certificate delivery, and community feast. CertificationGraduates receive the Tropical Dry Forest Permaculture Design & Regenerative Stewardship Certification (120 contact hours), hosted by Capacha Coastal Conservation Center and Tierralegre, A.C. Curriculum integrates international PDC standards with tropical ecology, agroforestry, ecological restoration, bamboo bioarchitecture, bioclimatic design, GIS/photogrammetry, and regenerative leadership. Highlights Hands-on bamboo construction (temazcal, bathhouses, sculpture) Tropical dry forest silviculture practicum Community mapping and design project for Ekoa Green Community Talent show and sea turtle release
November 13, 2026 09:00 – November 25, 2026 16:00
Offer
Offer

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