Allen Hancock eats well. His big orange house in Eugene’s South University neighborhood boasts quite an impressive garden – greens, herbs, nuts, peaches, even passion fruit – and on any given night, the fragrant aroma of herbs and fresh produce wafts through the kitchen. Hancock doesn’t like to cook every night and luckily for him, he only has to do it once a week.
Hancock lives in Du?má, named for the Kalapuya word for “home,” with nine other people as part of an urban intentional-living community.
Commonly referred to as communes, intentional-living communities are most often associated with the hippie movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“A lot of people are not very much of aware of how widespread it is,” said Tim Miller, a professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas who will be giving a talk on communal living at the University Thursday. “What I intend to do is show that it’s alive and well.”
Eugene is home to several intentional-living communities, including the St. John Bosco House, a home for young women and their children; Network for a New Culture, a group that sees community as the backbone of social change; and Solid Groundz, a group focused largely on sustainable agriculture.
Du?má formed 17 years ago when Hancock and five friends graduated from the University and pooled their money to buy the house on Alder Street.
Hancock is the only original member still there; he currently has nine housemates, including two couples and two children.
As a teenager, Hancock went on summer bicycle tours and hated having to leave the people he met on the trips, with whom he had bonded.
“At the end of three weeks people would go their separate ways. We’d all go to different parts of the country and you’d never see them again,” he said. “I didn’t want to keep saying good-bye to people I like.”
Hancock, who teaches drama classes at a studio downtown and does non-profit consulting on the side, was introduced to communal living as an undergraduate at Northland College, an environmental liberal arts school in northern Wisconsin.
“One of the great things about communal living is that you can pool your resources together,” he said.
The three-story Du?má house boasts 10 bedrooms, five bathrooms, a full basement with a workshop, an art room, office space, a hot tub, a sauna, solar panels on the roof, a chicken coop, and of course, the garden.
At Du?má, everyone has chores, pools money for groceries and takes turns cooking. Hancock said communal living is good economically, but he mostly likes the togetherness aspect of living with nine other people.
“We look for people who really value community and who are into living more ecologically-responsibly, who are into personal growth,” he said, adding that Du?má shies away from students, because college students are viewed as transient by nature.
However, there are intentional-living options for University students, particularly though the Student Co-op Association.
SCA has three houses – Campbell Club and Lorax Manner, next-door neighbors on Alder Street, and the Janet Smith House, also on Alder Street, which is for graduate students – with nearly 70 residents between them.
Rather than pay landlords every month, SCA students become joint owners of the houses in which they live.

“We do everything ourselves,” said SCA Recruitment Coordinator Pete Kass, a senior Spanish major. “We maintain, we cook, we clean; we do everything from the inside.”
Laundry is the one exception. Students pay to use the washer and dryer, in exchange for maintenance services.
“When you live with 27 undergrads, chances are, this kind of stuff breaks,” explained Kass, who lived in Campbell Club for three years.
At SCA co-ops, everything is consensus-based. Everyone chips in for food, the majority of which is local and organic, and everyone has jobs.
For instance, Monica Ito, a junior English major who recently moved into Campbell Club, does dishes and keeps the computer room clean.
“I love living here because I get to meet a lot of new people,” she said. “I don’t have to be oppressed by dorm rules or landlords.”
Every Monday through Thursday, SCA offers tours and meals to interested students. At the colorfully decorated Lorax Manner, named for the Dr. Seuss character who “speaks for the trees, for the trees have no tongues,” all meals are vegan. While veganism is not mandatory, no house money goes toward meat, cheese, eggs or any other animal product.
Located on Onyx Street and East 18th Avenue, Onyx House is home to “the greatest group of people,” according to House Pastor A.J. Swoboda, a University graduate.
A Christian co-op that’s an extension of the Eugene Faith Center, the co-ed Onyx House has 60 residents and 30 single-sex double bedrooms. Like other intentional-living communities, everyone at Onyx House has certain jobs, and part of their rent goes toward food, which they all eat together.
Swoboda said that while everyone at Onyx House is Christian, they are not all of the same denomination.
An only child, Swoboda’s first experience living with other people was nine years ago when he moved into Onyx House, where he and his wife, Quinn, are the “house parents.” He said communal living is economical, ecological and enjoyable.
“It’s changed my life – it’s taught me how to love people, and be patient and kind and compassionate and nice,” Swoboda said. “When you share space like that, you learn to live outside your box.”
Kass agreed that communal living is financially sound, but like Hancock and Swoboda, that’s not the main reason he likes it.
“The cost is an afterthought; it’s such an amazing place to live,” he said. “The social aspects, the experiences you’re introduced to, the people you meet – beyond whatever I expected to get out of college.”
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