About us
Welcome! East Bay Cohousing is for people interested in intentional communities and creating ways of meeting our daily needs for shelter and livelihood through cooperative long-term relationships among peers.
We are a big tent for all manner of self-governing member-led "collaborative housing" communities, including housing cooperatives, student coops, collective and co-living households, as well as co-housing neighborhoods, urban and rural eco-villages, faith-based or service oriented, moshads, kibbutzes and income sharing communes! EBCOHO Members come from every county in the Bay Area, and other parts of the US and the world.
Check out the EBCOHO calendar and events descriptions, past and present, to see the range of events we produce or curate from among our members, friends, partners, friends, and movement allies for a more just, sustainable, and flourishing world. Look for socials, orientations, workshops, discussions, slide shows, movie nights, open houses, work-days, trainings, tours, and conferences.
Explore the Discussion Forums to post and search for openings, forming groups, call-outs from Members, and other features.
Orientations for newcomers are usually offered every 4-6 weeks. This is where you can explore current and long-term opportunities to join a community, ask lots of questions, share who you are and your dreams, and start meeting like-minded people. If you are a do-it-yourself learner or explore the big picture, you'll get lots of useful resources.
Joining EBCOHO also makes you part of Cohousing California. At http://www.CalCoho.org you will find other regional networks, a combined calendar of events, links to forming and existing communities we know, and links to our partners, networks we belong to, and groups we consider allies around the world.
Use the Suggest a Meetup feature if you'd like to see a particular topic addressed, or if you've got something you are hosting. Events we personally host (Cohousing Coaches Raines & Betsy, that is), almost always include ample time for members to share their personal visions, skills and experiences.
EBCOHO is not usually a quick route to cheap housing, although members do share openings and offers, and we do list and refer members to openings in established intentional communities, both rental and ownership, in the Bay Area and beyond.
Thousands of Bay Area residents already live in safe and stable collaborative housing situations sharing life experiences and living expenses, decision-making, and ownership. Across the US and the world, millions more of people are living more sustainably, more democratically, more cooperatively, and more cost effectively, out of the booms and busts of predatory real estate markets.
If you want to know your neighbors well, have a better life by sharing more, and live more peacefully and lightly on the planet then please join us!
MORE.... about the sponsors and hosts of East Bay Cohousing.
This work is self-funded by the organizers, with a depth of knowledge and commitment that makes it unusual among Meetups (at least we think so!).
Thank you to Supporting Members and our Coaching Clients for helping defray some of the expenses of this labor of love. We thank you with a free orientation, and discounts to future events hosted by us and some of our sponsors/partners. You can track income and expenses on the Money page.
EBCOHO and Cohousing California are projects of Raines Cohen and Betsy Morris and our business partnership, Planning for Sustainable Communities. Each of us has lived in multiple cooperative living situations in the Bay Area before moving in together to Berkeley Cohousing, where we have been members since 2003. Raines has been deeply involved in technology user groups, tech for the social good, journalism and database consulting; Betsy has a PhD, a Masters in city and regional planning, and 20 years experience as a community development and research consultant. Both of us love organizing events that put people first, offer quality resources, and open up new doors and windows to the world that supports our visions and values.
As Cohousing Coaches and project consultants, we provide technical assistance and personalized support for individual members, forming groups, and existing communities. We connect a wide variety of kindred spirits and resources. Please find out more at http://cohousingcoaches.com, or http://www.AgingInCommunity.com/
You can visit our main site at https://www.ebcoho.org/
Sponsors
Upcoming events
7
- Network event$50.00
Bioregional Regeneration Bay Delta unConference Spring '26 (Oakland, in-person)
Oakstop, 2323 Broadway, Oakland, CA, US1 attendee from 7 groupsJoin East Bay Cohousing at a community-crafted gathering to explore community, resilience, restoration, and regeneration both in the San Francisco Bay & Delta and beyond.
These are days of darkness & possibility, uncertainty & opportunity. We are calling doers and dreamers from all walks of life to join together and create the story of a thriving future for all life, where we live: the Bay Delta Bioregion, and its many beautiful watersheds and communities.
The Question: How do we better collaborate within and across communities and watersheds to co-create a thriving future for all life?
In true unconference fashion, the rest is up to you!
Participants will create the agenda. You can propose your own topic and there will be many stimulating sessions to join.
Sessions will cover a wide range of topics, such as local food systems, bioregionalism, land stewardship, social justice, solidarity economy, ecological restoration, regenerative practices, Indigenous leadership, storytelling, solarpunk, the "collapse", and cooperation.
Formats will run the gamut from inspiring conversations to somatic exercises to “roll up your sleeves” problem-solving.
This event is for everyone whether you’re professionally involved, active as a volunteer and community member, or curious about how you can contribute.Don't miss this chance to experience a transformative and joyful day of networking, connecting, sharing, and action-making. We hope this will be the first of many gatherings that grow the movement to re-imagine a world that works for all life. Together, we will create new pathways for regeneration and resilience in the Bay and beyond.
While this event is not centered on cohousing, many Cohousing California (and our regional sub-network, East Bay Cohousing) allies are involved and we believe that the topics covered are relevant for anyone creating or living in sustainable community in the East Bay or beyond. We will be participating and offering to host discussions that make these links clearer, and helping people find paths to get the knowledge, experience and connections needed to bring about more communities with more depth in these areas.
Presented in partnership with:
- east bay permaculture guild
- Global Regeneration CoLab
- The Bay Delta Trust
- LIFT Economy
- East Bay Cohousing
- Greenermind Summit
- CrowdDoing
- NatureCounter
- California Doughnut Economics Coalition
- Cultivating Self
- Cosmic Labyrinth
- Terran Collective
- Hylo
Coordinated by Kaliya Young’s unconference facilitation team featuring longtime EBCOHO partner and supporter Ajay Tallam.
Learn more and register with a discount code via East Bay Cohousing's website.
1 attendee from this group - Network event$25.00
Berkeley Cohousing (un)Common Meal - cook & dine in community
Berkeley Cohousing Common House, 2220 Sacramento St. #G, Berkeley, CA, US2 attendees from 6 groupsJoin Betsy Morris and Raines Cohen, Cohousing Coaches and EBCOHO organizers, with area community seekers and residents of an East Bay Cohousing neighborhood, to together prepare a community meal/BBQ at Berkeley Cohousing, now celebrating over three decades as a community, as part of National Cohousing Month and East Bay Housing Organization's (EBHO) Affordable Housing Month.
At an (un)Common Meal, we take over a cohousing Common House kitchen on an "off" night and prepare our own Common Meal together; some members of the community may join us to eat it. The shopping will already be done, but we'll get to cook and clean and learn together, discovering the joys and challenges of feeding a group of diverse humans with unique needs, and cleaning up afterwards.
We charge dinner guests to cover the cost of ingredients, but we are delighted to be able to offer this event FREE to recipients of SNAP/EBT food assistance, since we know this is a challenging time and we want to support you through it -- that's what community is all about.
You can pay in advance and confirm your spot via the East Bay Cohousing website.Schedule for the evening:
5-5:30 PM Cooks arrive and start prepping dinner, under the guidance of a community member (we take care of the meal planning & shopping in advance)
6 PM Cleaners arrive and get to visit a home or two.
6:30 PM Break to eat and share about our community living and searching experience
7:00 PM Cleaners start cleaning, cooks continue discussion
(cleaners can rejoin when they're done)8-8:30 PM Wrap-up and go home.
Note: Everybody is either a cook or a cleaner. If you arrive too late to cook, you're a cleaner. Don't worry if you haven't cooked for a group before, we'll have plenty of experienced hands on hand, and the right tools in the Common House kitchen to make it fun and easy.
We'll take turns, with one group cooking while another socializes, take time to eat together, and then the cooks get to relax while the cleaners cleans up.
Advance registration and payment required, so we can shop and prepare. We always use local organic ingredients to the extent available, and offer alternatives to accommodate a wide variety of dietary needs.
Past events
2301
