A housing cooperative in Urbana, Illinois. Since 1976.
Seven people share a big old house in East Urbana. We cook together, garden together, argue productively every other Wednesday, and split the cost of everything by a formula we made up ourselves.
La Casa started in 1976, when a group of activists moved into a seven-bedroom rooming house and began organizing themselves as part of the cooperative movement of the 1970s. Members have gone on organizing under the name ever since, as people moved in and out — the longest-running housing cooperative in the area, with deep ties to the local community.
We’re not an intentional community with a manifesto. We’re a house with good systems, a compost pile, and fifty years of accumulated practice at living together well.
Piecing together the history of La Casa is an ongoing project. Documents turn up. Former members come out of the woodwork with stories.
- How living here works — rent, food, meetings, and how to inquire about a room
- Our history — the 1970s to now, and the gaps we’re still filling
- The Memory Drawer — fifty years of photographs from a kitchen drawer, most of them unidentified
Rooms open up a few times a year. If you’re curious, start here.
La Casa Grande Colectiva 