Samples of successful affordable communities

Amish and the Plain People:

These people trace their heritage back hundreds of years, and yet, despite all the time that has passed and the many changes that have taken place in society, they still live and work much as their forefathers did. Their families and their farms are their top priorities, second only to God.

The Amish are very devout in their faith. They believe in the literal interpretation and application of Scripture as the Word of God. They take seriously the Biblical commands to separate themselves from the things of the world. They believe worldliness can keep them from being close to God, and can introduce influences that could be destructive to their communities and to their way of life.


Los Angeles Eco-Village

EVENTS:  MARCH -APRIL – MAY 2024 (Fri, 15 Apr 2022)
__________________________ WHAT: Albert K. Bates, environmental attorney, prolific author, co-founder of the Global Ecovillage Network, and Founder of the Global Village Institute gives a workshop on Biochar with Blue Sky Biochar founder Michael Wittman.  We’ll be making biochar plus topics covered in the workshop include:–  Forever No More: Biochar and PFAS Mitigation; Biochar Closes the Plastic […]
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1. OAECOAEC is a non-profit education center, organic demonstration farm and intentional community located in western Sonoma County, 65 miles north of San Francisco, on 80 acres that encompass wildlands of meadows and mixed oak, fir and redwood forests. 

Sowing Circle LLC While Sowing Circle and OAEC remain two distinct legal and financial entities, they share a common vision. Sowing Circle has contributed an enormous amount of love, labor and money to care for the OAEC gardens, orchards and wild lands, and to create facilities and infrastructure that enables OAEC to actualize its programs.


2. LAEV Los Angeles Eco Villageconsists of the two blocks of Bimini and White House Place in the north end of the Wilshire Center/Koreatown area of Los Angeles.

Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust - The Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust (BVCLT) is a nonprofit 501.c.3 organization founded by L.A. Eco-Villager intentional community members, CRSP and Cultivating Sustainable Communities.  BVCLT  specializes in helping to create permanently affordable housing for low to moderate income households  dedicated to lower impact living patterns.


3. Mariposa GroveMariposa Grove is a member-owned, consensus-based intentional community in an urban setting that supports sustainability, social justice activism, creativity and the arts.  We are creating a permanently affordable home, a physical and social space where we share resources and responsibilities, grow together and support each other to fulfill our personal dreams while providing a model for the larger community of which we are a part.

NCLT Northern California Land Trustis a community-based not-for-profit committed to making homes and community facilities permanently affordable through the community land trust (CLT) model. The NCLT executes our mission by providing housing services, community development, and consulting/training services.


4. EVI EcoVillage at Ithaka -  EcoVillage currently includes two 30-home cohousing neighborhoods, FROG and SONG, and a third neighborhood TREE is under construction.

FROG Neighborhood"First Residents Group", The group is legally structured as a housing cooperative (EcoVillage Cohousing Cooperative), in which members purchase shares that are associated with their unit through a proprietary lease. The group acted as the developer, while Housecraft Builders, Inc. was hired as architect, builder, and development consultant.

SONG Neighborhood - "SecOnd Neighborhood Group", has 30 homes with 55 adults and 30 children. SONG completed construction of its 30 homes (15 duplexes) in 2004, and its Common House in 2006. All SONG homes have achieved EnergyStar certification.

TREE NeighborhoodWe plan to be a neighborhood of 40 homes designed to accommodate different-sized households and will have both shared and private gardens and other outdoor spaces. The neighborhood, to be finished in 2013, is located on a beautiful hilltop close to woodland, the first two EVI neighborhoods, and to a planned educational facility. 

Center for Transformative Action - The EVI-CSE, a project of the Center for Transformative Action, promotes experiential learning about ways of meeting human needs for shelter, food, energy, livelihood and social connectedness that are aligned with the long-term health and viability of Earth and its inhabitants


In its 40-year history, Damanhur has realized an extremely practical dream:

to be a spiritual eco-community where 600 citizens have given rise to a multilingual society, open to exchange with the world and with diverse cultures of its people, whose relations are inspired by solidarity, a sense of responsibility, play, humor and creativity. 

Today, Damanhur is a place for exploring the profound values of life, through action and investigation in various areas: culture, work, art, sustainability, the economy and research into the subtle energies that guide the universe.