Our community is a diverse intentional eco-village and housing co-op of transgender/ genderqueer individuals, who strive to make an eco-conscious impact within and outside of the collective. Our community balances many aspects of communal co-habitation where we work to build supportive systems for the land, food and medicine cultivation, shared resources such as: financial, time, energy, food, and labor; in service of developing and facilitating anti-capitalist social/relational infrastructures.

There are several key areas where financial support is critical to our community being able to continue this long-standing, land and resource sharing co-habitation project.

We are raising funds to cover 3 main areas:

1. Critical Maintenance $15k

– covers immediate health & safety needs repairs and updates

2. Empty Room Fund - $5k

– covers lost funds from difficulties in finding new community members

3. BIPOC Rent Subsidy Program - $10k

– establishes a new reduced or free rent program for BIPOC residents

If you’d like to dig into all the details and learn more about us, please continue reading below!

WHY ARE WE RAISING MONEY?

Critical Maintenance - $15k

Unfortunately, the previous members of our community did not and/or were unable to maintain the three properties well enough to ensure safe and functional living conditions. There is a long list of deferred maintenance that has fallen onto our present group of folks to figure out how to address, and many are very costly.

A short list includes: replacing a solar powered on-demand water heater that had corroded pipes and was leaking CO gas due to negligent tending, 2 presently dangerous, rotting, exterior wooden decks and 3 sets of stairs that are needed for regular passage to and from the houses, as well as an ADA ramp to at least one of the houses and other accessibility and safety upgrades, new insulating windows to replace broken, drafty, single pane windows in one of our earthen buildings, finishing the renovation of the kitchen in the BIPOC house – there was an old gas stove that was leaking gas and in order to replace it we need to rip out and re-build the surrounding counters/cabinets as well as the upper cabinets in order to install a proper hood vent. As well as a long punch list of other health & safety repairs and updates.

Seeding a BIPOC Rent Subsidy Fund - $10k

Another goal for our community is to start a fund to subsidize rent for any/all BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color) residents. Currently, at an average of $800/mo, it is nearly just as expensive to rent a room here as it is everywhere else in Portland. It is our goal to make this land project as accessible as possible to BIPOC folks. For a few examples: $10,000 would allow us to reduce a 4 BIPOC residents' rent by half for 6 months, or provide free rent to 2 folks for 6 months. This is a huge impact. In addition, with the start of this fund, we would be able to apply for city, state and federal grants to help continue the fund.

This fund will be developed, implemented and stewarded by a cohort of BIPOC residents and local community members, with support where needed by white residents. In order to sustain the fund, a set % of all monies raised by any fundraising initiatives will be allocated to the fund and we will continue to apply for grant opportunities.

Empty Room Fund - $5k

We have had one room open since November, and now also have a tiny home/trailer space available immediately. To cover the costs of the empty room we have had to drain our savings and other community funds that go toward maintenance, garden and bulk food purchases. It has been difficult to find suitable landmates because we are a COVID cautious community amid collective social denial, and choosing to live intentionally with 11 other people, and committing to all that is required to participate in this project is a tall endeavor for the average person. In addition to the fact that many of our members are disabled and/or immunocompromised, we also hold the perspective that it is a critical social and moral responsibility to maintain COVID safe practices. This is to protect everyone, but most importantly, to protect BIPOC folks who are shown, through countless research studies, to not only be subject to racist medical malpractice, but who also suffer far more deadly and debilitating effects from contracting COVID.

A BIT MORE ABOUT US!

The name of our community is not being used in order to maintain the privacy and safety of our members in order to advertise this fundraiser publicly. This community was started roughly 15 years ago and has grown into three adjacent houses, with a capacity to house 12 humans who share the land and common indoor spaces in all the homes for the purposes the space seems most suited for. We practice pesticide- and chemical-free soil building, crop production, herbal medicine cultivation, gray and rainwater catchment systems, composting, earthen/natural material building, and shared food systems. We host intentional gatherings for community members, skill shares, workshops, gardening parties, music/ritual spaces, community dinners, and relationship building events. We plan to continue expanding and deepening this work as we develop our capacity and internal rapport.

Some members are Jewish, one is Muslim, and some are BIPOC; the collective recently made the decision to specifically include more BIPOC residents in the community to disrupt white supremacy, and efforts are being made to create true safety and inclusion through an ongoing "unlearning whiteness" cohort.