Men’s Vision House
WE HAVE 1 ROOM FOR RENT
* $436.43/month (not including utilties) Medium-Sized Room with Large South-facing Window
As part of its commitment to promoting men’s wellness, Manifest and a group of visionary investors created a cooperative Men’s Vision House in June, 2007. The house is dedicated to supporting gentle, powerful men in creating their unique visions of wellness & community.
APPLYING TO BECOME A HOUSEMATE: Please call Bart Church, Property Manager, at 503-223-8822 x2 or if you are interested in becoming a housemate or want to know if there are vacancies. After reviewing the information below, If you want to apply to become a housemate, please click here to fill out an application online.
APPLYING TO BECOME A GUEST: If you want to explore the possibility of becoming a guest of the Men’s Vision House, please contact John Ossowski, guest relations coordinator, at (503) 223-8822 x3, or . We allow guests to stay up to 2 weeks if they are manifesting a vision that inspires us.
INFORMATION FOR HOUSEMATE CANDIDATES
Below is information for housemate candidates about the basic benefits and commitments they can expect as a resident of the house. This document is a work-in-progress and most of the agreements can be changed by housemate consensus at any time.
HOUSE VISION
“Love is the source of health: love of self, others, & all life.
Do not be afraid to love; without love, life is impossible.”
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
Our cooperative house is dedicated to supporting gentle, powerful men in creating their unique visions of wellness, community, & sustainability. As a house we also support the creation of a community of men who empower one another to manifest wellness & love through community. Through our living together we seek to inspire our individual and collective visions of body/mind/spirit wellness, and to heal ourselves and the many communities & ecosystems we belong to and/or care about. We are men of diverse ages, skills, backgrounds, orientations, and intentions. And we want our home & housemates to support us in living our lives fully—with purpose and joy. After 6 months living in the house, housemates have the opportunity to purchase units of the Men’s Wellness Network, LLC, and thereby become partial owners of the house.
SHARED SPACES & RESOURCES
• gas stove,
• 2 Bathrooms
• Off-street parking (long driveway)
• New EnergyStar Large washer & dryer
• 2 new EnergyStar refrigerators
• huge living room/studio with hard-wood floors; you can request to use this space for groups or events you care about; requests must be approved by Manifest and all housemates; the space is used M-F 9-5 pm by Manifest and four nights a week
• lots of storage in attic & basement
• locked shed for bikes & gardening tools
• 1 fully furnished guest room/office to be used by housemates & their out-of-town guests
• Second smaller guest room & meditation room to be used by housemates & their out-of-town guests
• Ethernet high-speed wireless connections & phone jacks in each room, plus wireless high-speed internet throughout the house
• vegetable garden, labyrinth, & large back & side yards with lots of south & east light for gardening,
• free access to onsite yoga, meditation, healing touch, & wellness classes
• affordable utilities
• family room w/ TV/stereo/DVD & Japanese-style dining room table & high speed internet & phone jack (can be used as office w/ permission of all housemates)
FOOD/MEALS
We share most prepared meals (breakfast, lunch, & dinner) & staple foods (foods we all agree we all eat and want to share in common). Prepared house meals can be eaten by housemates whenever they want, as can staples. Several housemates cook for the house each week (as one of their chores). We typically only sit down to a shared meal of all housemates once a week on Sunday evenings. We each contribute about $100-$150/month for shared food, utilities, & other shared household items (cleaning supplies, toilet paper, gardening supplies etc). All shared food is vegetarian, although meat-eaters are free to buy & prepare their own chicken/meat/fish. Since some housemates are vegetarian, we have separate cutting boards and frying pans for meat eaters and vegetarians.
UTILITIES
Utilities are not included in rent to inspire conservation by all housemates. They include gas heat, stove, & drier, electric hot water & compact fluorescent bulbs in most common areas, as well as high-speed internet connections in every room, and a house phone. We also buy garden supplies & house cleaning supplies collectively. Utilities average $45-$55 in colder months and $35-$45 in warmer months, and are included in the $100-$150 house dues we pay at the beginning of each month. We don’t have A/C except for 2nd floor bedroom, and fans keep us plenty comfortable. To conserve natural gas, we tend to keep the thermostat low in the winter and bundle up or use space heaters to briefly warm up spaces we’re using.
PETS/SMOKING/DRUGS
Because some housemates have allergies, we can’t allow furry pets or smoking in house. Because of the public visibility & scrutiny of this house we cannot allow any illegal drug use or possession on the property.
BIKES/PARKING
We have a large locked shed for bike storage. For those with cars, we share a long driveway (about 2 off-street parking spaces). Housemates who share the driveway need to give one another their spare keys so they can move cars when necessary. If you don’t park in the driveway, you must park on Wygant (not on our block of NE 22nd), to avoid creating parking problems for our neighbors.
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HOUSE MEETINGS & HEART CIRCLES
Every other week (usually Sunday evenings) we all participate in a house meeting designed to help us all prioritize and address the questions we need to answer to help the house maintain harmony, beauty, and fun. To support one another in manifesting our visions, we also meet every other week (usually on Sunday evenings) in a heart circle where we each answer the following questions, speaking from our heart without cross-talk or judgment from others:
1. What is your vision?
2. What’s going well in relation to your vision?
3. What challenges or distractions are you facing in relation to your vision?
4. What support would you like to request from housemates or the whole house?
5. What else would you like to say to clear & express fully what is in your heart?
COMMUNICATION
We all commit to open, honest, & compassionate communication. We also agree to double confidentiality: we will not gossip about others who are not present and we will not speak about confidential information (including anything said in heart circles) said to us by one housemate to anyone else without their permission.
GUESTS
We are committed to providing hospitality to our friends, relatives, & community groups we love. Housemates may have guests spend the night in their room just by informing other housemates of the name of the person and introducing that person to any housemates that are around. Guests may only stay in your room up to 13 days per month; after that you must seek permission from all housemates and the property manager, and your guest will likely be required to pitch in for food, utilities, and wear & tear on the house ($14/day). Exceptions can be made to this payment requirement, but they must be approved by all housemates and the property manager. If you want your guest to stay in one of the house guest room, you must seek prior approval from all housemates and check with the guest relations coordinator to make sure the guest room is not already booked.
FREE YOGA/MEDITATION/WELLNESS CLASSES
Part of the mission of the Men’s Vision House is supporting men in manifesting wellness & love through community. As part of this mission, we share a studio space in the house with Manifest Men’s Wellness Community, a non-profit organization. Manifest offers five yoga classes each week, two meditation classes per month, 3 healing touch classes per month, and occasional special wellness programs for men. All housemates may attend any of these events for free or for whatever time or money they would enjoy donating. In return for free access to all classes, housemates agree to be quiet when they use the kitchen during events, as well as to help maintain cleanliness in the main bathroom and kitchen, which are shared with events.
GARDEN/LANDSCAPING
All housemates benefit from our beautiful garden & labyrinth, and therefore commit to work at least one one hour per week in weeding & watering the garden. If housesmates don’t have time to work in the garden, they can pay $20/week which the house can use to hire a housemate or gardener.
PETS/SMOKING/DRUGS
Because some housemates have allergies, we can’t allow furry pets or smoking in house. Because of the public visibility & scrutiny of this house we cannot allow any illegal drug use or possession anywhere on the property. Under the lease, if you or your guests are found to possess or use illegal drugs you can be evicted in 24 hours. Because of the high profile nature of this house, the property manager and MWN, LLC cannot be seen to be tolerating illegal drug use or possession on the property. To do so could result in the forfeiture of the whole house should a criminal prosecution be leveled against the house.
CHORES
Each housemate does 2-3 chores each month, which take about 1-2 hours/week. If a housemate is too busy to do their chores they can either pay another housemate or house-cleaner to do their chore, swap chores with another housemate, or ask housemates to temporarily assist you in completing your chore. We collectively evaluate how well each of us are doing our chores and whether we want to switch chores each month. We all participate in a game to keep the kitchen and main bathroom impeccably clean, as we share these spaces with the Manifest Studio. We each spend about 3 mins/day cleaning the main bathroom and about 3 mins/day cleaning the main bathroom.
BANK ACCOUNT & TREASURER
The housemates belong to a non-for-profit association (Men’s Vision House), and the association maintains a bank account that will be used to collect house dues (utilities, staples, vacancy fund, special projects). One of the housemates serves as our treasurer and collects house dues each month and pays utilities and makes reimbursements. The treasurer will also help assure the staples shopper(s) stay within their spending budget each month and provide a house financial report each month. Levi Banner is the current house treasurer, and John Ossowski is the deputy treasurer.
RENT & SECURITY DEPOSIT
Rent is due on the first of the month before 5 pm. If rent is more than five days late, you are charged a $25 late fee. We are all responsible for the whole house’s rent and for our individual room rent. This means if there is a vacancy in the house, we all take responsibility for recruiting, interviewing, and selecting a replacement. If we are not successful in our search, our rent goes up proportionally until we find a replacement. We maintain a rent reserve fund to shield us from increases if there is a brief vacancy (and we’ve never actually had an unfilled vacancy). Once you are accepted into the house as a housemate, you submit your security deposit which is equal to one month’s rent. This deposit is not refundable until you pay your first month’s rent. After you pay 1st month’s rent, your security deposit becomes refundable if, after you move out, you’ve left your room in substantially the same condition it was in when you moved in, AND you pay your utilties and house dues for the period of your tenancy (i.e., through the end of your 30 or 60 day notice period).
DIVERSITY
Please help us to increase the diversity of men who are invited to live in this house by forwarding the attached flier about the house to any men who might be interested. We seek diversity in experience, background, class, race, orientation, intention, and many other factors—because we believe that having many perspectives creates a much richer, more adaptable learning system.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved
in your heart,
and try to love the questions
themselves.”
-- Rainer Maria Rilke
CURRENT HOUSEMATES
Colin McLeod
Michael St. John (not pictured)
Ehab Elhanafy (not pictured)