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5 min readIn a co-housing community outside Washington, D.C., a budget meeting started with a group stretch and wiggle session. Minutes later, a resident named Debbie Winston was objecting to a rushed plan to fix a security gate, saying she felt “vulnerable and that’s not okay.” The meeting eventually reached consensus, earned a “happy dance,” and demonstrated the central trade-off of intentional communal living: the price of community is inconvenience, but the return on investment includes solving loneliness, sharing resources, and building support networks that the standard American dream of isolated homeownership does not provide.
The spectrum of intentional living
The episode distinguishes between two related but different models of communal living. Co-living means sharing a single house with multiple people who actively build lives together, not just split rent. NPR producer Michael King lives in a Berkeley farmhouse with 19 other people and two dogs, having moved from a solo one-bedroom apartment because he “felt like there was more that I want to experience with other people.” Co-housing is a larger arrangement: a group of separate houses or apartments connected by shared spaces and governed by consensus. There are about 140 existing co-housing communities in the U.S., with roughly the same number in development. Both models reject the premise that adulthood means ow
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Episode Introduction and Host Banter** - Host Brittany Loose and producer Jordan Marie Smith discuss roommate horror stories and introduce the topic of communal living.
- 2 (02:12) **Defining Intentional Communities** - Jordan explains the modern forms of communal living: co-living (shared house) and co-housing (group of homes with shared spaces).
- 3 (04:58) **Jordan’s Personal Connection and Reina’s Story** - Jordan reveals she was born on a religious Seventh-day Adventist commune, giving her firsthand experience with communal living.
- 4 (07:09) **How Common is Communal Living?** - Jordan explores the data and demographics behind the trend, noting it’s hard to distinguish intentional communities from standard roommates.
- 5 (10:14) **Michael King’s 19-Person Co-Living House** - Jordan speaks with NPR colleague Michael King, who lives in a Berkeley farmhouse with 19 other people and two dogs.
- 6 (13:22) **The Loneliness Epidemic as a Driver** - The segment connects communal living to the broader cultural crisis of loneliness.
- 7 (15:53) **Co-housing vs. Co-living** - Jordan clarifies the distinction between co-living (sharing a house) and co-housing (a group of private homes with shared common spaces).
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Show Notes
For a lot of people, living with your spouse and kids in a standalone house with a white picket fence is, more or less, the American dream. But people aren’t as likely to get married and have kids as they used to – and buying a house is more unattainable than ever. But even for those who don't share this particular American dream, alternatives -- like living alone or with roommates you don't really talk to -- can sometimes feel alienating, or like a last resort. But the proponents of communal living say things can be different. Communal living can look like co-living – where people choose to live with others in one house or building – or co-housing – which is a community built around a group of houses. They are intentional communities where people build shared lives together – and they don't have to be blood-related or romantically involved. All Things Considered producer Jordan-Marie Smith wanted to know – what might be driving people to live communally? And can communal living be seen as a viable, first choice adult living situation?
Jordan-Marie shares her reporting with Brittany on what she found out.
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