ABOUT | temescalcommons

Temescal Commons is a co-housing community founded in 2000 by a group of people who were part of a Christian church and craved a way of living their faith more actively the other six days a week. Over the years, it has evolved to be interfaith. Its founding and enduring principles were 1) “radical hospitality”—the idea that everyone, no exceptions, is deserving of kindness—2) community, and 3) sustainability. We live on less than half an acre (three lots combined), where proud trees drop persimmons and apples and we are known by passerbys for our prolific blackberry bush along a robust vegetable garden, all smack dab in the middle of urban Oakland. The nine units vary, but everything was built or rehabbed to be as green as possible; solar panels on our roofs mean the electricity bills rarely exceeds $10 in an average month per family. A central courtyard is the hub of our life together—the place where we gather with cups of coffee for spontaneous chats while little ones splash in baby

saved by

• Dominic Beck