History & Overview
The People of Color Sustainable Housing Network (POCSHN) is a resource network for people of color building intentional, healthy, collective and affordable housing communities in the Bay Area and beyond.
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POCSHN was founded in February of 2015 as a Meetup Group - hosting events, trainings, and field visits to cohousing, cooperative & farm sites that are led and owned by people of color in the Bay Area. In August of 2015 we held our first annual People of Color Sustainable Housing Convening focused on co-housing and cooperative models, community land trusts, and strategies for collective land acquisition and ownership. This 75 person gathering launched the work of POCSHN.
Currently, POCSHN has four part-time staff and an advisory council, all of whom are women of color. We re-started our orientations in 2021 after a three-year hiatus and are currently hosting them online on a quarterly basis, as well as continuing to offer our 4000+ person strong Facebook page, an email listserv and Meetup group to connect BIPOC who are interested in cooperative and sustainable housing.
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We are partnering with and are fiscally sponsored by the Northern California Land Trust to support ongoing projects of POCSHN. To learn more visit our Projects page.
Vision
We are committed to creating an entire ecosystem of POC-centered co-housing, cooperative housing, and intentional communities that are ecologically, emotionally, spiritually and culturally regenerative spaces.
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By supporting the creation of indigenous, low-income and people of color-led housing and land projects that focus on collective land ownership & stewardship, resident-controlled housing, and cooperative economic models, the People of Color Sustainable Housing Network hopes to foster long-term replicable strategies and tactics for housing, food and land-use movements.​