The Wondership
The Wondership
Ahoy there, and thanks for your interest in the Wondership! This website is intended to give you a taste of what our community is like, the room that’s available, and what we’re looking for so you can decide if it might be a good fit for you. If you’re interested after taking a gander, please go ahead and fill out our application form and let the person who sent this to you know that you’re applying so we don’t miss your submission. Thanks for reading.
Rent: $xxxx no room avail
Membership fee (covers shared food, utilities, home improvement): $400
Total monthly: $1,450
The Wondership is a 7-person + 1-cat co-op in North Oakland with a big backyard that's a fruit tree paradise. We are a community of queer folks deeply into activism, art and getting outdoors.
We care about creating a home that’s both supportive and playful where people can grow, connect, and express themselves fully.
What’s it like to live here? We often share meals, dress up in costume, watch movies on our projector screen, dance spontaneously in the kitchen, go on hikes, host activist gatherings, and plan other shared experiences. We enjoy hosting events, including queer mixers, community potlucks, and whatever else you want to dream up with us!
••What we’re looking for:
We are seeking a new member who has time and enthusiasm to devote to being part of the community – this means participating in monthly meetings, doing your part to keep the house tidy, and building intentional connections with community members through 1:1 hangs and group events.
We are looking for someone with community living experience who wants to contribute to the space in some way, whether that’s through home improvement, baking, or hosting events.
As a community of queer-identified folks, it’s important to us that everyone can express our gender and sexualities in a safe space, so we are ideally looking for a new member who is queer or a queer ally.
You’ll thrive at the Wondership if you have communities of friends outside the house, interests and activities that fulfill you, and you’re excited to jump in and build meaningful connections with a close-knit community of new people.
••About the house:
~ Large shingle home built in 1899 with lots of character and natural light.
~ Beautiful community spaces including a kitchen, living & dining room.
~ Huge yard with a deck, fruit trees, secret tea space, and even two Redwood trees! It’s magical.
~ Easy street parking + driveway
••Accessibility info:
~ We have 1 indoor cat and cannot accommodate more free-roaming pets – sorry!
~ We accommodate all diets in our food plan and shared meals, though those with serious allergies should alert us so we can discuss our current patterns around your allergens and what might need to change.
~ There is a small flight of stairs to our front door and back door, and there are more stairs within the house to access the room. No roll-in showers. Light fixtures are not at accessible heights. This is an old home that we rent from a landlord, so improvements here would need to be negotiated with him.
~ We understand the prices of these rooms put them out of range for some folks, and that sucks. We decide room prices collectively based on the monthly rent due to our landlord (which is very steep at $8150/month). The utilities and monthly food costs are equal for everyone, and all community members have access to spending it. We’re happy to share the breakdown of our room prices and monthly food costs with you and talk about how we came to those prices.
~ Other questions? Please let us know in your application!
••Diversity info:
Our community is made up of mostly queer and/or non-binary folks, and mostly white people with a couple multi-racial folks. Most of us come from middle to upper class backgrounds. We engage in conversation about our identities often and strive to make our home a place that is safe and inclusive. We welcome people from all backgrounds to apply and recognize that majority white and class-privilege spaces may not work for everyone. If Wondership sounds like a place you could call home, we would love to have an open dialogue about the culture and what your needs and boundaries are.
••Covid info:
~ All community members opt in to our COVID protocols and participate in creating or adjusting them.
~ If you get exposed to Covid we ask that you mask in common spaces for 5 days. If you receive a negative test result you may remove the mask.
~ We don’t currently have other agreements for restrictions on behaviors, and many of us attend indoor gatherings regularly and don’t mask in public.
3-month Trial
We have a 3-month trial period for all new members to build in time to see what it’s like to live together and ensure it’s a good fit both ways, after we’ve established good rapport during interviews. We meet at the end of the first month to talk about how things are going, and at the end of the 2nd month we come to an agreement about whether you’ll stay on as a full member of the community. If it’s not a good fit, you’ll have another month to find a new spot. For what it’s worth, in our 4 year history, only one person has left at the end of the trial period, and it was of their own accord.
Food plan
We share food, and ask that all members opt in to our shared food system. We accommodate all diets, and keep our kitchen fully stocked. All members participate in food shopping and anyone can add ingredients to the shopping list. We don’t currently have a mandatory house dinner, but often cook for each other throughout the week and occasionally host birthday dinners, etc.
Cleaning
Did someone say Chore Wheel?! We have a Helm of Responsibilities, which designates each house member’s area of responsibility for keeping the house clean that month. In addition, each house member does a kitchen clean 1x/week and participates in a Deep Clean once a quarter. We recognize chore wheel systems can be ableist and can make accommodations to the system to meet folks needs.
House Meetings
We meet once a month to steward our house. Attendance is expected, unless there is a pressing reason a member cannot join. We rotate responsibilities for the meeting through facilitation, note-taking, making dinner, cleaning, and documenting our house history.
House Communication
We use Slack to communicate about day-to-day things, and house meetings to make larger group decisions.
Finances
Each month, we all pay into a community fund that is used to purchase food, utilities, consumables and furnishings. Anyone can purchase things for the house using this fund and get reimbursed. We track these purchases transparently and collectively share the responsibility of staying under our budget (though we do have a bit of padding saved up in case of emergency or mistake). For non-food purchases over ~$25, we check in with the house before buying.
Decision models
We operate under consensus for big decisions (like changing room prices, or negotiating with our landlord). For these decisions, we use our monthly meetings. For smaller, day to day decisions, we use the model of “do-ocracy”. In this model, anyone can make a change (like hanging art in the living room) as long as you are willing and able to reverse it. Most of our casual decision making (like when someone wants to host a guest in our guest room) happens on Slack through voting and light conversation.
Please fill out the application here (Scroll down) if you’re interested and we will set up an interview if we think you might be a good fit!
??????
(She/her, 37, white): Enjoys reading, learning new things, playing word games, and making interactive art. Loves a group activity, especially if it involves costumes. Shares a bed with P, and sometimes Bootz.
(she/her, 31) mysterious housemate who values privacy and who doesn't like writing bios. We like L a lot and you may too!
(35, he/him, white+Jewish), enjoys dancing like no one is watching, playing music with friends, and lifting heavy objects. Longtime activist, now focusing building a savings account. Shares a bed with one of the housemates.
(they, 27, white) playful, curious, and sometimes organized. Loves attention, both giving and receiving. Known for building surprising costumes, crafting garlands, and knowing where everyone in the house is.
(they, 32, white & Japanese American) A transmasc enby artist and organizer. They enjoy discussing socio-political issues, pumping iron, rollerskating, and collecting tiny objects & old children's toys. Owner of and complete simp for Bootz the cat.
(They, 32, white + Jewish) queer jokeful tinkerer who enjoys building things and relationships. Activist who enjoys showing up where they can. Loves queer cartoons, contact improv, and teaching.
a cute & vocal indoor cat who doesn’t love being pet but may come sit on your lap from time to time and will absolutely accept treats. Sucker 4 wet food.