Cohousers are all kinds of people.
Our current members represent every generation. We come from a variety of backgrounds, life stages, family types, and beliefs. What ties us together:
- We love living in a walkable, bikeable urban setting
- We’re excited about growing our own food (or at least trying).
- We love eating and cooking together
- We’re excited about the opportunities to reduce our environmental footprint
Rodrigo & Gaby
We’re a Mexican couple living in Vancouver since 2019 and have a son named Leo. As architects, we both share a passion for sustainable living. While living in different cities in Mexico, Switzerland and Lichtenstein, we studied different types of community-oriented living and became convinced that cohousing is the ideal lifestyle for us.
We are grateful to call Vancouver our home as this city offers everything we love to do, including travelling, camping, stand-up paddle boarding, tennis and making friends with people from different cultures from all over the world.
Inanna and Khiran
Inanna, originally from California, and Khiran, who has lived on and off in Vancouver for many years, are grateful to have found a home in this community. Inanna works for a meditation app, and Khiran for a small policy research and strategy consultancy. With fully remote jobs, they value the opportunity to connect over meals, conversations, and shared activities with their neighbours, and have been impressed by the kindness and strong sense of collaboration within the group. Inanna sings in a choir, Khiran plays soccer, and they enjoy biking, cross-country skiing, and camping when they can.
Kathy
My attraction to cohousing is probably the result of our family moving every couple of years when I was a child. I have a built-up longing for deep roots and knowing my neighbours. Location is a big deal for me. I’m a walker and an urban location means strolling down Main Street for coffee with a friend or hitting the library and community centre. I love art, really long walks like the Camino Real and I’m a relentless reader.
Alice & Shaher
We are a couple of Europeans, exported to Vancouver. We’ve been living happily outside our home-country for a long time. But when we had our son a few years ago, we felt how hard it was to raise children without family -or a village- around. That’s what drew us to cohousing. We started doing some research and realised co-housing combined our social values and needs. We’re grateful to have joined this community which definitely feels like the dream home for us. It is a very culturally diverse, warmhearted and fun community where we found neighbours we can call friends and so does our son.
We work in different fields (software engineering and public affairs) but we have in common to be quite creative people and in our free time we enjoy hiking, sewing, reading, playing board games – and video games.
Cathy
I grew up in Alberta and came to Vancouver in 2008 to train in a second career. I fell in love with this city and decided to stay despite leaving my friends and family behind. Cohousing is the best of worlds for me in that I can enjoy close relationships and support within this community, but still have my own space when I need some quiet time. I’m an e-bike commuter and enthusiast! I enjoy theatre, knitting, reading and tap dancing.
Chris
Born on the prairies, raised on the west coast, I’ve been lucky to be a part of many wonderful communities over the years – in work, in play, and now in home. Choosing cohousing made perfect sense as a way of sharing experiences and support with others who believe taking care of their home encompasses their neighbours and the larger community around them.
In my free time, you can find me exploring the city by foot or by transit (there’s always something new to discover!), playing tabletop roleplaying games, or enjoying a local theatre performance.
Christine & Alistair
Having lived in a number of cities in the UK, France and Canada, we are confirmed urbanites who love to walk and bike throughout Vancouver all year round. Mount Pleasant has been our home for over a decade so Our Urban Village was an ideal cohousing option for us. We’re excited to be living and sharing with like-minded people who are seeking to build a strong community where they live.
In our spare time we practice yoga, make music and try to make the most of the arts scene around the city.
Tara & Aaron
After meeting in Boston and living there together for four years, Tara imported Aaron to Vancouver in 2013. Since then we’ve grown our family and love all that our city has to offer. Cohousing is just the sort of vibrant community that we hoped to raise our children in.
We are committed urbanists and place a high value on sustainability and social justice, both in our personal and professional lives (transit planning and labour communications). When we have free time, we enjoy cooking, exploring the city by bike, board games and photography.
Carol
I grew up on a family farm in Saskatchewan, surrounded by cousins, aunts and uncles, until I was 13. Since then, I’ve lived in every sort of environment. On an acreage in Langley, in suburban Montreal, in rural Ontario and Toronto. Each had its own appeal and the people I cared about in each place are still in my life.
I’m attracted to cohousing because I love this feeling of community when neighbours look out for each other.
