Seeking members for a covid-cautious intentional community!

If you already have a place and want me to join you let me know!

Would you like to join a covid-cautious intentional community?

We will have fun, art, academics & activism.

The community will be off grid, growing food, and do emergency preparedness & mutual aid.

Disability, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC friendly.

The plan is to live together before purchasing property, and start this fall- or even sooner.

Please contact me if you'd like to join!

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DETAILS

There's no set plan. The goal is to just do what works. Here are some hypothetical ideas.

I want to do a stationary, long-term camp vanlife off-grid community that's accessible for people with disabilities (with the goal of being inclusive of all types of disabilities) and is covid cautious. I plan for it to be as luxurious as it can get in regards to comfort. (I can't say much for aesthetics though, I'm going for low-budget and practical) If you are not currently doing vanlife but are interested, let me know and I can help put together resources for you to join. This group is LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC friendly.

Potential locations at the moment include Colorado and California. If someone has land, a house, or an existing community in another location on the west coast (I might be able to do other regions, just depends) that would be great. My plan is to, during this time, apply for a visa in Mexico and find van life locations there. I'm not sure if I personally will go through with going to Mexico, that will depend on finances, health, and safety (ex. strength of US passport) but I'd rather do it now than worry about things later. If after the election I'm in Mexico and don't feel comfortable going back to the US, I'll make a new plan. I have tentative plans with disability-accessible immigration strategies but ultimately am undecided on countries.

More about this: There will be large tents so there's more room besides the vans. One tent I plan to have as an art museum! Currently interested in origami dioramas, faux stained glass, and low-budget interior design. There will be a community hang out space with a mini library and a makerspace. There will also be disability- accessible and extremely covid cautious silent disco rave parties.

I'm currently working on van-life accessible sustenance farming to cover all nutritional needs, using foods and growing methods that save space and have high nutritional value.

You can join by heading over to this discord. If you'd like to join but don't have discord, please dm me and we can find an alternative. https://discord.com/invite/HJzqg539VH

Does the phrase "covid-cautious" refer to people who are continuing to take the threat of COVID-19 seriously even though the rest of the world has moved on? Or does it refer to people who think the authorities have been over-hyping the risk from the beginning? (I think it's the former, from doing a quick web search, but I also found a reference that went the other way.)

Covid cautious is about preventing and stopping the spread of covid, with N95 masks/respirators, ventilation, etc.

I'm very interested in seeing where this goes (remaining covid cautious is one of my utmost priorities). I wish I could offer my land in Washington, but there are elements concerning the land itself that make it not conducive to a bigger intentional community format. I am open to hosting a single individual or possible a couple here, but anything more involved than that would potentially cause problems in my local community. Plus half of my 5 acres is wetland, so space is limited here. Eventually I would definitely entertain moving to another community, perhaps on a property more conducive to a intentional community structure (assuming values, location etc. all line  up). I'd also prefer a less populated area than where I currently live, ideally speaking.

My main question is - how do you intend on structuring a community like the one you describe without raising red flags with local public health authorities? I know there are a few counties left in the country that still permit unconventional living styles, but  they are few and far between. Most jurisdictions have extensive codes that prohibit tent/van dwelling type communities. That's the biggest challenge that I foresee. I'm all for the lifestyle - I've done extensive van dwelling stints, lived in a bell tent for a period, and now live in a very small tiny house. The economics of such a lifestyle would make the barrier to entry significantly lower for folks on the lower end of the economic ladder, which we have a dire need for pretty much everywhere. It's the code enforcers that are barring the way at this point. Very interested to hear how you might plan on tackling that particular obstacle.

Anyway, I'd love to participate in the discussion going forward. I am having trouble with the discord server though - it doesn't like my phone number for some reason and it seems they require one for logging in?

Brandon Charles wrote:I'm very interested in seeing where this goes

Hi!
I was thinking of doing a long-term encampment on BLM long term visitor area land, or going to national parks. If I'm able to get enough money I could just buy land and build some living spaces, do something similar to this person in terms of zoning.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLadi8rkUyvZ7Dma4GJOoJmr19oUpy26Ya&feature=shared

It would be nice to have a large community, but I'm honestly not expecting it to be more than a dozen and will probably end up being just a few people.

Brandon Charles wrote:. The economics of such a lifestyle would make the barrier to entry significantly lower for folks on the lower end of the economic ladder, which we have a dire need for pretty much everywhere. It's the code enforcers that are barring the way at this point. Very interested to hear how you might plan on tackling that particular obstacle.

Anyway, I'd love to participate in the discussion going forward. I am having trouble with the discord server though - it doesn't like my phone number for some reason and it seems they require one for logging in?

If people want to join but can't afford to I'd try to do a fundraiser, definitely don't want that to be a barrier to entry.
And darn, discord can really suck sometimes. You can email me at whatworkscollaborations@proton.me

National parks will be very difficult. They are patrolled heavily and generally don't allow for dispersed camping. BLM and National Forest land is more viable, but generally only for short term stays. If you try to set up anything long-term on or near a road, the authorities will come disband the camp before too long. I think the maximum camping duration in National Forest land is 14 days, and with homelessness on the rise the rangers are going to have no choice but to start policing the areas more. They already are where I live. I've seen several groups get away with NF camping in Washington for brief stints over the past several years, but the rangers have now caught on and all of the camps I've seen previously have been disbanded. Staying mobile solves this problem as you can do that and stay within the rule book, but that life can wear people thin after a while. It's good to have a home-base if possible, especially in the winter. That nomadic model also prohibits food self-sufficiency to a large extent.

My personal vision is to have the best of both worlds by purchasing a very remote property that either borders, or is in very close proximity to national forest or BLM land. That way the group can make use of both.

The only place in the US that I know of where you can go set up shop and stay indefinitely is Slab City. If anyone knows of another spot that is similarly free of policing, feel free to chime in.

Brandon Charles wrote:

My personal vision is to have the best of both worlds by purchasing a very remote property that either borders, or is in very close proximity to national forest or BLM land. That way the group can make use of both.

That would be cool. If I have the money or someone volunteers I'd definitely want to get land.

There's something called BLM long term visitor area where you can stay for a long time. National parks was a back up plan.

Brandon Charles wrote:. Plus half of my 5 acres is wetland, so space is limited here.

This made me think- can you do houseboats?

Just gonna add my two cents about staying on public land like forest service land and such. Yes, you can only stay for 14 days, but that's 14 days from when you get visited by the authorities there. Rangers have no way of knowing how long you've been there. Short of having cameras or something, there's no way to prove anything, except their own observation of you being there. Of course, your own conscience may limit you to 14 days regardless of whether you ever get visited. Some other people think the rule is silly and that public land is public land, and you should be allowed there as long as you want as long as you aren't building anything permanent or destroying the place.

Brandon Charles wrote:The only place in the US that I know of where you can go set up shop and stay indefinitely is Slab City. If anyone knows of another spot that is similarly free of policing, feel free to chime in.

https://thedyrt.com/magazine/local/rv-campers-guide-quartzsite-az/