Live Together, Thrive Together: Shared Housing as Mutual Aid

Imagine Housing as a Way to Build Community and Share Resources.

Photo by TunedIn by Westend61 via Shutterstock

In a world dominated by private property and capitalist interests, cooperative housing offers a radical alternative rooted in mutual aid. The concept of shared housing challenges the traditional narrative that equates success with individual home ownership, offering a vision of shared responsibility and resource pooling. As the crises of housing affordability, social alienation, and environmental degradation intensify, cooperative housing presents not just a practical solution but a paradigm shift in how we live together.

Finding a place to live has become increasingly expensive, a symptom of deepening, late-stage capitalism. Fewer people can afford to buy homes, and rents continue to rise astronomically. The reasons for this are numerous. In many cities, property developers lobby for policies that prioritize expensive rental developments, often charging double or triple what rents were prior. They intend to make money, not provide enough housing at affordable rates.

Limiting supply (even artificially) keeps profits high, such as maintaining a supply that never satisfies demand. There are plenty of homes technically, a surplus beyond basic human needs. The available homes are out of reach for those who need them - whether because of geography, real estate hoarding, or otherwise.

Those who can afford property often buy more properties than they need, acting as rent-seekers who profit from the labor of others. This behavior deprives younger generations of the ability to build generational wealth like their predecessors. Cities are increasingly filled with short-term and vacation rentals, which, absent regulation, greatly reduce the supply of starter homes for first-time buyers. Atlanta leads the way in limiting short-term rental properties to two per owner, however.

Hedge funds like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street further exacerbate the issue by using your retirement savings to buy up available homes and convert them to rentals. It defeats the purpose of saving for retirement when those very savings are used to raise living costs, and the diminished housing supply shuts the doors for subsequent generations to build wealth.

So, how can we afford to stay housed in this economic reality? Today, we consider the perspectives of multi-generational households, indigenous wisdom, housing cooperatives, and cohousing as some potential solutions to capitalism’s problem of artificially scarce housing. 

 

Multi-Generational Households

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Living in a society that glorifies individualism and private property often leads to isolation and disconnection from the community. Cooperative housing offers an alternative—one where land and resources are shared collectively. This deepens community connections between individuals. In fact, records dating back to the 1850s in the United States suggest it was once more common for families to live together or near one another. 

In Bangladesh, for example, the Ekannoborti Poribar, or "joint family," exemplifies this collective approach. Families live in one compound, share resources, and build their lives together, maintaining generational ties. This communal model fosters strong social bonds and shared responsibility. Cooperative housing builds on this tradition, aiming to reduce the alienation caused by private, individual ownership.

Multi-generational households offer one possible solution to today’s housing crises. In many parts of the world, it is common for families to share homes across generations. This arrangement allows young people to interact with elders, and responsibilities like childcare are shared. These multi-generational families can also be chosen ones, like in queer communities.

It also reduces housing costs by spreading them across several generations, while providing elders the opportunity to live their final years surrounded by loved ones. Young parents can dedicate more time to building their careers, which benefits the household.  Furthermore, you can maintain consistent housing throughout life’s stages and easily pass down the home along generations. 

 

Indigenous Wisdom: Land in Common

"On the housetop--Hopi: Photo shows women seated and standing on pueblo buildings." by Edward S. Curtis via Unsplash

Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass offers a profound perspective on the strength of holding land in common. In the chapter "Council of Pecans," Kimmerer highlights how collective ownership creates resilience and unity. "Stick together, act as one. We Pecans have learned that there is strength in unity," she writes. This unity is essential to mutual aid, where communities must rely on each other for survival.

Kimmerer also illustrates the tension between collective and private ownership, recalling how Indigenous people were offered the American Dream of private property ownership, only to lose most of their land within a generation. This history cautions about the fragility of land ownership in capitalist societies and underscores the importance of preserving collective spaces.

If we truly want to change this situation, we must be willing to live differently. Learning from Indigenous relationships with the land could teach us to see land as more than just a commodity. The same thinking that created these problems won’t solve them. Perhaps owning land in common should be restored as a means of mutual survival. 

 

Housing Cooperatives

Sanford Housing Coop by Sandrika19 via Wikimedia

Cooperative housing is another form of intentional community where individuals collectively own, manage, and maintain their living spaces. In 1932, during the Great Depression, struggling students in Ann Arbor, Michigan, pooled their resources to buy a house and share meals. This first housing cooperative began as an act of necessity, but it reflected the power of mutual support and collaboration.

Today, housing co-ops exist as intentional communities that prioritize affordability and resource-sharing. These spaces aren't just about cutting costs—they offer a model for living that fosters mutual reliance and collective responsibility, values that are increasingly relevant in an era of precarious housing and rising inequality. Their greatest savings are realized as market rates nearby continue to rise over time, and the collective saves even more once any mortgages get paid off.

Applying market principles to human necessities makes them inaccessible. If housing becomes unaffordable due to market-driven pricing, then perhaps being market-based is the problem. Housing cooperatives allow people to pool resources in a way that covers maintenance costs without demanding profit from a necessity. In some cities like Vienna, where non-market housing dominates, rent can be as low as 4% of a worker’s pay. Compare that to the modern USA where rents can take 50% or more of one’s pay. 

 

Cohousing: Bridging Privacy and Community

Cohousing - kooperatywa mieszkaniowa By Dawid Cieślik via Wikimedia

While cooperative housing emphasizes collective ownership and shared responsibilities, cohousing offers a distinct yet complementary model. Cohousing communities consist of private homes clustered around shared spaces like kitchens, gardens, and common rooms. This structure blends the autonomy of private living with the benefits of communal interaction and mutual aid.

The modern cohousing movement began in Denmark in the 1960s and has since spread globally. It offers a model that encourages collaboration while respecting individual needs. Each household maintains its own space, but common areas are designed to foster social interaction and support, through cooking shared meals, growing community gardens, collective child-rearing, or group decision-making.

Cohousing aligns with the principles of mutual aid by encouraging residents to rely on each other for daily needs, building a strong sense of community and shared responsibility. These communities often practice consensus decision-making, reinforcing the values of collaboration and solidarity.

At its core, cohousing offers an opportunity to reimagine how we live together without sacrificing personal autonomy. It shifts us away from the isolated nuclear family model and toward a more interdependent, community-focused way of life. By fostering environments where neighbors know and care for one another, cohousing bridges the gap between individual privacy and collective well-being.

 

Reframing Mutual Aid: From Charity to Solidarity

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In many contexts, the word "aid" is synonymous with charity, a dynamic that can reinforce power imbalances between givers and receivers. This model positions those in need as passive recipients, rather than active participants in their survival. However, mutual aid is about collaboration and solidarity, encouraging us to think about what we can achieve together that we cannot achieve alone.

Peter Kropotkin emphasized how effective a strategy of mutual aid is for survival. People still believe that “survival of the fittest” refers to the individual, but individuals don’t raise themselves. The fittest communities adapt the best to change and overcome their survival pressures together. If humans relentlessly competed rather than cooperated, we would have never survived the many eons up to this point.

As Dean Spade discusses in Solidarity Not Charity, mutual aid efforts must navigate the challenge of mobilizing people to engage in resistance while addressing the immediate needs of those facing precarious conditions. Cooperative housing serves as a site of resistance to the privatized housing market, providing a space where people can organize, share resources, and collectively challenge systems that perpetuate inequality and housing insecurity.

Building New Conditions Together

Photo by Anamaria Mejia via Shutterstock

In a society built around privatization, it can be difficult to ask for help or feel comfortable relying on others. However, cooperative housing reframes mutual aid in a way that feels natural and empowering. Homo sapiens are quite social after all.

Rather than focusing on individual needs, it encourages us to consider what we can accomplish together. It challenges the psychological barriers to mutual aid, offering a model grounded in solidarity rather than charity.

Ultimately, cooperative housing offers a glimpse of what it looks like to live in a world where mutual aid is the foundation of community life. Today we learned about several forms of shared living that show housing choices besides conventional ones.

Cooperative housing redefines success—not as individual wealth accumulation, but as collective strength and resilience. In doing so, it provides an alternative to the alienation of private ownership and opens up possibilities for a future where everyone’s needs are met systematically.

Beyond Survival of the Fittest - Mutual Aid Index

1. Beyond Survival of the Fittest: Kropotkin's Vision of Mutual Aid

   1. What is the role of solidarity and reciprocity in building equitable and sustainable communities?

2. Mutual Aid Among Plants and Animals: Cooperating for Survival

   1. Peter Kropotkin Observes How Cooperation Among Species Improves Survival and Shapes Evolution.

3. Frolics and Barn-Raisings: Mutual Aid Amongst the Amish

   1. Take a Look at the Amish Traditions of Collective Action and Solidarity.

4. The Arab Spring: Mutual Aid in the Fight for Freedom

   1. See Solidarity in Action with the Collective Struggle for Liberation in the Arab Spring Movements.

5. The Black Panther Party’s Legacy of Community Empowerment Through Mutual Aid

   1. The BPP protected and served their communities despite rampant racism and being the main targets of the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program.

6. Blessing Boxes: Mutual Aid in Our Communities Today

   1. Find Out How These Simple Free Community Pantries Transform Neighborhoods and Promote Solidarity.

7. Childcare Collectives: A Modern Expression of Mutual Aid

   1. Childcare Collectives develop when groups of families, friends, and/or neighbors pool their resources to raise children.

8. Feeding Hope: The Impact of Community Fridges as Mutual Aid

   1. See How Grassroots Efforts Like Chattanooga’s Hope Community Fridge Transforms Food Access and Fights Food Apartheid.

9. Grow Food Together: The Impact of Community Gardening as Mutual Aid

   1. Shared Gardens Enhance Food Security, Build Community Bonds, and Promote Well-being Without Personal Expense.

10. Community Self-Defense: Protecting Ourselves and One Another

    1. Let’s Talk About How Communities Work Together to Protect Themselves From Harm Inflicted by the State and Fascists. 

11. Community Workspaces: Where Coworking Meets Opportunity

    1. Find Out How Shared Community Workspaces Support Creativity and Mutual Empowerment.

12. Deciding Together: The Consensus Model in Mutual Aid

    1. How Collective Decision-Making Builds Strong and Resilient Movements   As Shown by Occupy Wall Street. 

13. Live Together, Thrive Together: Shared Housing as Mutual Aid

    1. Imagine Housing as a Way to Build Community and Share Resources. 

14. Breaking Bread, Building Bonds: What’s Cooking in Community Kitchens?

    1. Learn How These Shared Kitchens Create Lasting Change Through Healthy Meals, Cooking Education, and Mutual Aid. 

15. Migration and Mutual Aid: Navigating a Climate Crisis Together

    1. The USA and Global North Grew Rich Burning Fossil Fuels. Radical Cooperation Can Help Us Adapt to a Changing World.

16. Forgive Us Our Debts: How Debt Collective Helps Abolish Financial Servitude

    1. Debt Collective Branched Off From Occupy Wall Street and Unifies Debtors in Mutual Aid for Collective Liberation. 

17. Thou Doth Protest? How The Diggers Reclaimed the Commons and Fought Early Capitalism

    1. Learn About the Radical Solidarity and Resistance to the Enclosure of the Common Lands in 17th-Century England.

18. A World Without Barriers: Consider Accessibility in Mutual Aid

    1. Everyone Becomes Disabled if They Are Lucky. So How Can We Make Our World More Accessible?

19. Mutual Aid in the Eye of the Storm: Disaster Relief Amid Climate Change

    1. When Disaster Strikes, Mutual Aid Responds: A Blueprint for Resilience Amid More Frequent Catastrophes

20. Beyond the Ballot Box: Build Dual Power for Real Change

    1. Empower People Through Mutual Aid, Solidarity, and Community Control.

21. Communities of Care: How Solidarity Transforms Support for Elders and the Differently-Abled

    1. How Can Mutual Aid Principles Change Elderly and Disabled Care From Isolation to Connection?

22. Growing Resistance: How Food Forests Feed Communities for Free and Defy Capitalism

    1. From Commodities to Commons: The Radical Potential of Agroforestry