Community of Urbana-Champaign Cooperative Housing

About the Houses

Harvest House

Harvest is a 14 person house in Urbana focused on sustainability and cooperative living. We are a vegetarian and vegan-friendly house and open to pets.

Harvest House

Harvest House is a 14-member co-op situated on a quiet, tree-lined street in Urbana. The house is a short walk from the University of Illinois campus and downtown Urbana.

About the House

Bedrooms

Harvest is a three-story house with a furnished basement. Each floor has a 3/4ths bathroom. There are 14 bedrooms, all are completely furnished with a bed, dresser and desk.
The average rent per room is $350 per month, with rates ranging from $300/month to $415/month. Utilities and food together are another $215 per month.

Food

Harvesters prepare home-cooked, healthy, vegetarian and vegan-friendly dinners Monday through Friday and on Sunday, and brunch on Saturday. Each person cooks once a week, so teams of two make each meal. We buy food in bulk from UNFI which delivers to the house once a month. We strive to buy local when we can and organic when it is the most sustainable option.

Amenities

Common spaces include a large kitchen with industrial-quality appliances, pantry, dining room, living room, laundry room, entertainment room, storage closets, and a garage.

We have Ethernet internet connections available and high-speed wifi.

We also have a house computer with shared printing, bike rack, and a washer and dryer, all of which are free to use for housemates.

Labor and Decision Making

Harvest upholds pretty standard operating procedures for a co-op. Check out the FAQs for more details. We make decisions that affect the house either through email (in urgent or low-stakes cases) or at our house meetings on Sunday nights. Decisions are voted on and decided by modified consensus (all in agreement, but one) for bigger decisions and simple majority for minor decisions.

House meetings are usually at 7pm on Mondays, depending on what is most convenient for members..

Members

Harvest is open to anyone regardless of occupation or student status! The house is usually a mixture of undergraduate and graduate students and non-student community members. House members come from all corners of the world and encompass a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Harvest is committed to diversity. Diversity of experience, backgrounds, ideas, and personalities. When deciding who to vote into the house, we value the perspective a person might contribute to the community as much as we care about the typical criteria, such as ability to pay rent.

If you have any questions, or to apply to live in the house:

Email membership.couch@gmail.com

To apply to live in the house, fill out our application linked above! We are always accepting new applications and will notify you when the next opening becomes available if we do not have any current openings.

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Brooks House

Brooks is a 14 person house in Urbana focused on community building and cooperative living. We are non-vegetarian, but vegetarian-friendly and open to pets.

Brooks House

Brooks Co-op – which opened its doors in 2001 – is a 14-member co-op conveniently located halfway between the University of Illinois campus and downtown Urbana (about a 10-minute walk to each). Each week, our members eat five meals together, perform household chores, and enjoy each other’s company in a friendly atmosphere. Our house has 14 bedrooms, 1½ kitchens, a dining room, 2 living rooms, five bathrooms and a basement.

About the House

Bedrooms

Brooks has 14 bedrooms, which are usually used as singles. Double occupancy is permitted in larger rooms.
Room rates for 2019-2020 vary from $320 to $493 per month, depending on room size and its aesthetic condition.
Utilities and food are extra (about $50 and $145 respectively).

Food

Brooks’ members enjoy five weekly house meals; members take turns cooking for each other. The co-op offers mostly healthy vegetarian meals with occasional non-vegetarian dishes as well. The house also buys its own food (which is decided by its members), although members are allowed to buy their own personal food.

Amenities

Our house is equipped with wireless internet and there is access to wired internet connection in almost every room. The house does not have a land phone; most house members bring their own cell phone. There is a washer and dryer in the basement, and a big compost bin in the back yard for vegetable waste.

Labor and Decision Making

Keeping the house in good working order is an important part of life at Brooks. Each member cooks, cleans after meals, and does weekly chores - like cleaning bathrooms, washing the dining room floor, and taking out the garbage. Some members also take on coordinator positions. These people are responsible for house finances, maintenance, food shopping, membership, and labor coordination. Once a semester, we dedicate an entire day making improvements to our house. Check out the FAQs for more details. Decisions are voted on and decided by modified consensus (all in agreement, but one) for bigger decisions and simple majority for minor decisions.

House meetings occur once a week, and give members the opportunity to make democratic decisions on how to run the house. The house uses a modified-consensus model in which a proposal can be vetoed by two or more votes. In honor of the house’s namesake, the poet Gwendolyn Brooks, members sometimes read a poem at the beginning of house meetings.

Members

Brooks’ members include graduate students, undergraduates, and community members from diverse cultural backgrounds. Many housemates become friends and do things together outside of the house.

If you have any questions:

Email membership.couch@gmail.com

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Randolph House

Randolph is a nine bedroom house in Champaign focused on gardening, cooking, and cooperative living. The house previously was operated as the Catholic Worker House and served the homeless population of Champaign, and we aim to honor this history by offering accessible and affordable housing, as well as sharing our food and produce with the community. Randolph is currently leased from Jonah Weisskopf, unlike Brooks and Harvest which are owned by NASCO Properties, which mostly just means house members are not responsible for as much maintenance.

Randolph House

Randolph House is a nine bedroom co-op situated in Champaign. The house is a short walk from downtown Champaign and all the entertainment and cultural resources the city center offers!

About the House

Bedrooms

Randolph is a three-story house with a furnished basement, with bedroms in the basement and first and second floor. There are five bathrooms in the house! All bedrooms are completely furnished with a bed, dresser and desk.
The average rent per room is $295 per month, with rates ranging from $275/month to $370/month. Utilities and food together are around another $200 per month.

Food

We prepare home-cooked, healthy, vegetarian and vegan-friendly dinners five nights a week. Each person cooks around once a week, so one or two people make each meal. We buy food in bulk and grow lots of produce during the summer. We strive to buy local when we can and organic when it is the most sustainable option.

Amenities

Common spaces include a large kitchen with industrial-quality appliances, two ovens, flat top, large range hood, pantry, dining room, living room, laundry room, a huge porch, and the entire third floor is common area for crafts, yoga, jam sessions, or whatever floats your boat.

We have Ethernet internet connections available and high-speed wifi.

We also have a washer and dryer, bike rack and compost bins all of which are free to use for housemates.

Labor and Decision Making

Randolph upholds pretty standard operating procedures for a co-op. Check out the FAQs for more details. We make decisions that affect the house either through email (in urgent or low-stakes cases) or at our weekly house meetings.

House meetings are usually at 7pm on Mondays, depending on what is most convenient for members.

Members

Randolph is open to anyone regardless of occupation or student status! The house is usually a mixture of community members and students. House members come from all corners of the world and encompass a variety of cultural backgrounds.

Randolph is committed to diversity and accessibility.

If you have any questions, or to apply to live in the house:

Email membership.couch@gmail.com

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What's it like to live in a co-op?

Communal Meals

House meals are one of the major aspects of the co-op experience. Housemates take turns cooking for each other, and dinner is often a time for members to socialize with each other.

Resource Sharing

Living in a cooperative means that there is no need for everyone to own a set of dishes, buy all of their own food, or buy their own cleaning supplies. Money is saved by buying in bulk and resources are conserved by sharing public goods.

Shared Labor

By setting up an orderly division of labor, housing co-ops make sure that everyone does their part in maintaining the house and no one gets stuck with all the work.

Community

Roommates may merely co-exist without actually interacting with each other. Housing co-op members establish community by working together.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are some of the questions we get most often. If you don't see your question here, please feel free to send us an email.

If I want to live in Harvest, do I have to be vegetarian?

Nope! Currently, about half of the housemates are vegetarian/vegan.

We have a policy that no raw meat can be brought into the house and that cooked meat should only be re-heated in the microwave (house pans shouldn't be used for meat). However, if you're ok with that set-up, there is no need to be vegetarian.

What is the time commitment involved when living in the house?

Including cooking, cleaning, and house meetings, about five hours a week. Part of this is regular cleaning and house upkeep. So, for example, one person might sweep the stairs, another might take out the compost, another keeps the bathroom tidy. Labor responsibilities generally take 30 min- 1 hour a week.

We also have coordinator positions. These are longer running, more big picture jobs. One person takes care of maintenance, meaning if there's something to be fixed, that person will either fix it or delegate the fixing to another housemate or to a professional. We have food shoppers who go out and buy food once a week. One or two people manage finances, and someone also manages membership and recruiting. The time commitment varies depending on the job, but typically require 15 min to an hour per week depending on the job.

About once a week, you are expected to cook dinner for the rest of the housemates. This usually involves 2 hours cooking and generally about a half hour to an hour with all the clean up.

The final time commitment is attendance at a weekly house meeting, where we discuss ongoing projects, any issues like maintenance requests, and any requests that people have of the house (ex: "please respect quiet hours"). You get to multitask by eating at the same time, but it is about an hour commitment.

How does food work? You buy it collectively, right?

Yes. Part of the monthly amount paid to the house goes towards buying food.

We have housemates whose coordinator position is to buy food from the grocery store each week and one person who orders the bulk food. Buying decisions are generally made as a group, with some judgement calls going to the food shoppers. If you ever want something specific, put it on the shopping list and they'll get it.

If you wanted it to, house food could cover all of your food needs for the month. However, you are also completely free to bring your own food into the house. Just label it with your name and no one will touch it.

Can my pet live in the house too?

Probably. Pets have to be approved by the housemates, and sometimes someone already living in the house has allergies, but we are certainly open to pets.

Pets that can live in your room are almost always ok. Bigger pets that require more space and care may not be a good fit for that particular generation of housemates. With that said, the house is generally pretty open as long as you are willing to take responsibility for the pet.

Do you offer non-full year leases?

Yes, occasionally, though room preference is given to those who are able to sign full-year leases.

What are the total costs associated with living in a COUCH house

The costs will vary depending on which house you live in. Monthly costs break down into rent, utilities and food, with set amounts for each. Please see each house's page for information about how they do it. In general, we are committed to making the houses as affordable as possible and it will cost less than living in a typical apartment in Champaign-Urbana.

Okay, so you all live in a co-op. You must be super intense hippy types...

While certain characteristics certainly trend that way - we love our garden, compost daily, believe in shared responsibility - we, for the most part, don't think of ourselves like that. We have a lot of varied interests and view points and generally don't take ourselves too seriously. We've had musicians, librarians, biologists, engineers, poets, accountants, and many more live in the house (including those that work to live, not live to work!). The main commonality between housemates is a dedication to cooperation. That said, harassment or discrimination will not be tolerated. The houses aim to be a safe space for people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized groups. That said, no one is perfect and we acknowledge that we can all continue to grow as humans together. People come to the houses from all different countries and backgrounds, and a little discussion of cultural differences and expectations can go a long way in preventing conflict.

Are you associated with other Urbana-Champaign co-ops?

Not in any official capacity. You may have heard about Jonah Weisskopf's co-ops and/or the Roundtable houses; while we share similar vibes and are down to network and collaborate with them, those systems are privately owned while we are democratically run as a nonprofit.

COUCH

About the Houses

Harvest House

Brooks House

Randolph House

What's it like to live in a co-op?

Communal Meals

Resource Sharing

Shared Labor

Community

Contact COUCH

Application