Temescal Commons Community - Oakland, CA
Planning started: 1997; Community opened: 2000
 Located in the northern section of the city of Oakland, near one of the more challenged edges of the Temescal neighborhood, the community is consciously attempting to impact its surroundings. Neighbors share in our community life with outdoor movie nights, Cub Scout meetings, first aid training in the common house, and celebrations like Fourth-of-July barbecues. When the church organized an after-school tutoring program at the public elementary school five blocks away - a school near the bottom of the city’s rankings-many of community residents eagerly participated and two individuals even became teachers there. The children invite neighborhood kids to play and shoot hoops. These friends come from various walks of life, sometimes with brothers or sisters in jail, the community believes that its prayers, guidance, and playful attention will impact their lives. Residents love it when churches, schools, neighborhood overlap and share a bit of glorious light of God’s kingdom.
Temescal Common's focus started with the understanding that we all live in God’s creation and that we are to love God, each other, our neighbors, and to care for the creation. The community's three goals are to create community, to be good neighbors, and to care for God’s creation. As a part of creating community, residents wanted their children to be raised within an “extended family.” It was also important to simplify lifestyles and minimize expenses by sharing meals, cars, and major appliances. Sharing things in common helps to free up time and money to invest in families, the schools and other neighborhood issues requiring urgent attention. Making homes affordable to average-income families was essential so they wouldn’t need to work multiple jobs or long hours to pay the mortgage. Sharing times of yardwork, study, prayer and recreation was also an appealing goal. Above all else, Temescal community wanted a place where residents could care for each other as Jesus cared for us. This has involved unexpected effort and disappointments, but is a rewarding, transforming process for those who undertake it.
The vision also emphasized hospitality, Christian neighborliness, justice and service. This includes inviting to dinners neighbors who are hungering for more relationships, and providing affordable housing options. Improving neighborhood schools was also close to the resident's hearts and the children’s lives. Residents sought the collective energy that cohousing would provide to address more of these crying needs in Oakland. Caring for God’s creation is also very important to this Temescal community. There are several avid gardeners and flower lovers, and the residents planned from the beginning to have the design, construction, and operation the buildings and grounds as sustainable as possible. They also wanted to be able to hear God speaking through the lilies, fruit trees, birds and stars. While outdoor private space is pretty rare, there are enough unique niches in the various places so that noone feels too crowded or restricted in their options.
Buildings that make up the community include several remodeled older homes, combined with new construction. The housing consists of three four-bedroom units, a three-bedroom unit, three two-bedroom flats, and two studio units. The small, brightly-painted buildings are clustered around two interconnected yards – the “commons”. The new common house -- consisting of a dining area, kitchen, laundry, powder room, and television alcove -- is near the center of the complex, and adjoins an old barn. Part of the dusty downstairs portion of the barn was cleaned up and turned into an exercise room with weights and an elliptical trainer. Another part provides storage for bicycles, while the upstairs hayloft is now a well-used recreation room for the teenagers with ping-pong table, television, and a couch. Next to the barn, in the tool shed and workshop area, everyone keeps the equipment and tools they are willing to share. Because of these common features, the new homes were designed with no laundry areas and smaller kitchens and dining rooms. This conserves resources and encourages community interaction. Construction of the complex was a challenging ordeal with major delays and work that had to be re-done or deferred, not unusual for development but very disruptive and stressful for a group of self-developers. Six of the units plus most of the common area are part of a condominium association. Each condo owner owns and maintains everything within his or her exterior walls, while things beyond the walls are the joint responsibility of all the owners. Everyone pays monthly dues to cover the maintenance and utility costs for the common area plus a long-term reserve fund for replacement of roofs, equipment, and such. Things like landscape maintenance and bookkeeping have been done by residents to keep costs down, but have been a challenge with such a small number of owners. Management of all the systems required to keep this functioning has been stressful, particularly due to cutting edge unreliable techology like on-demand, integrated radiant heating and hot water systems. Almost half of the residents have been renters, who contribute energy and creativity, but turn over more and sometimes don't engage or take on as much responsibility as needed. This has been a great learning and growing process.
See Presentation for more information on Temescal Commons. Victory Outreach Indio (Forming Commmunity) - Indio, CA
 HMG is currently assisting Victory Outreach Church Indio in establishing a HMG Neighborhood in Indio, CA. The church, whose primary ministry is outreach and evangelism to the local neighborhood, is planning a residential community of about 32 units, a large common house and commercial office and retail space to house local economic development efforts. The church has formed a separate non-profit organization to develop and own the project.
The 32 residential units will be rental units affordable to low income families and funded through public and private subsidies. Each home will have a full kitchen, 2-3 Bedrooms and 2 baths. The community design will incorporate small scale, walkable design and sustianble construction features. The residential life community will be managed by onsite professional property management staff and 24 hour security and concierge service.
Community life will focus in the common house, which will include common dining and gathering space, commercial kitchen, recreation rooms, libraries, guest housing units and on-site services desk. Weekly community dinners will be planned and prepared by the residents and monthly neighborhood wide events will be used to service the wider community. Shared resources such as electric carsharing, tool and equipment library, and bulk-purchasing will be an opportunity for residents to spend less of their resources and save and give more. Photovoltaic panels will provide electricty for the common areas and other amenities. A number of neighborhood wide commercial amenities are planned, such as new retail space, daycare, community center facilities, and office space for new business incubators and the business they support. The residents will work with state and local agencies to promote new job growth in the area and provide job training and support for residents. These new businesses will be contribute to the economic development efforts of the neighborhood and its residents.
See Presentation for more information on Victory Outreach Indio Fresh Community at Pinedale (Forming Commmunity) - Montgomery, AL
HMG is currently assisting Fresh Start CDC in establishing a HMG Neighborhood in Montgomery, AL. Fresh Start is the community development corporation of Fresh Anointing Church which is a multi-racial, multigenerational, International ministry committed to fulfilling the mandate of Christ to make disciples of every people group possible. Fresh Start was attracted to the HMG Neighborhood model to more fully accomplish its vision for a new 60 acre planned empowerment community. Two neighborhoods in this 220-unit community will be HMG Neighborhoods. This community is designed to anchor a larger area with hundreds of units of subsidized housing that lacks the educational, entrepreneurial and social supports needed for a vibrant community. The HMG Neighborhood model helps this congregation stabilize an under-resourced community and establish a permanent presence as neighbor. The first RLC development is a 30 unit elder-rich ownership project in which the owners will design a large community building. The second HMG Neighborhood is a 30 unit townhouse style (single-level flats) adjacent to the town square and an intergenerational community center.
The residential units will be rental and homeownership units targeted largely to elders and older home owners in the area needing more appropriate housing for their older years. The new homes will sell/rent at market rates with varied price points.Subsidized units will not be part of this mix due to the large numbers of existing units in the area. In this case creating a healthy mix of housing options requires more market rate housing and empowering ministries to stabilize existing subsidized communities. The family units will be a mix of attached and detached styles having a full kitchen, 2-4 Bedrooms and 2 baths. The senior units will have a full kitchen, 1-2 Bedrooms and 1 baths. As also reflected in the overall master planned community, the community design will incorporate small scale, walkable design and sustainable construction features. The residential life community will include healthcare and case management options for the senior community. Community life will focus in the common house of each community, which will include common dining and gathering space, commercial kitchen, recreation rooms, libraries, guest housing units and on-site services desk. |