As the maintenance coordinator for Masala and the Boulder Housing Coalition, I was able to learn and practice my skills in carpentry, green building, and energy efficiency research and consulting. This experience gave me the platform from which I started two businesses in energy efficiency & green building as well as becoming a co-founder of the Boulder Green Building Guild… My second business, Snugg Home, builds web based software solutions for municipalities and utilities across the country to manage their home energy retrofit programs.

Masala allowed me to be rooted in Boulder in a way that is not normally possible for someone who cannot afford a house. It gave me a way to really be a citizen of Boulder and not just someone passing through a generic rental property. Perhaps the most valuable thing about Masala is the sense of connection and investment in the larger community, ranging from our friendship with the elderly lady next door to the neighborhood farm we helped create. I imagine how much the city would be enriched if it had more places like Masala.

The Boulder Housing Coalition provides a valuable community enhancing affordable housing alternative to Boulder County, that’s why the County Commissioners have chosen to support the development of their third cooperative with a $40,000 grant.

I love living in a house where everyone contributes their talents, energy, and support — many hands make light and lighthearted work! Long and short-term visions come together, through collaboration, frustration, challenges, and love. It is a beautiful struggle. If my co-op were gone, my life would be less rich, more lonely and self-indulgent, less meaningful and less about giving. If Chrysalis were not in Boulder, our neighbors would not see that sharing our strengths and vulnerabilities with others can be more fulfilling than relying solely on oneself.

The co-op system in Boulder is truly an asset to the residents it serves, as well as the greater Boulder community. It has enabled me to live near my work at Boulder Community Hospital and have access to many local resources in an area where I could not afford to own a home. BHC has provided me with the opportunity to engage in projects such as Flatirons Neighborhood Farm, which build community within our larger neighborhood. It is evident that cooperative housing in Boulder is cultivating strong leaders, community activists and critical-thinkers. Co-op residents are experienced communicators, problem-solvers and peace-makers. I can envision the positive, lasting results of creating more opportunities for affordable, cooperative housing in Boulder.

As a member of Chrysalis housing cooperative from 2004 to 2007, I learned the value of sharing my life with a diverse group of people and I became a vibrant part of my local community… Now I conduct social science research at Yale University with a team of four sociologists. The four of us are writing a book on contemporary race relations in the United States. Every day while writing the book, I use the skills that I learned at Chrysalis to create and maintain a wonderful and productive research team

People from the Masala Co-op knocked on my door and asked if I’d be interested in forming a non-profit Neighborhood Supported Agriculture farm … together we formed Flatirons Neighborhood Farm (FNF)… the skill set that the folks from Masala Co-op and the Boulder Housing Coalition brought were the mortar and bricks that put this organization together … by far the greatest benefit that the farm has had is the creation of a community in our neighborhood.

Although a lot of people are skeptical about consensus, I’ve seen it work very well in our housing communities. It teaches good communication, honest evaluation of individual actions, respect, and empathy… it also leaves room for leadership on particular projects or on specific emotional or moral issues. Consensus trains members to participate productively in a governing body. In short, we learn to be good democratic citizens.