Welcome! Starlings House is a shared household in its beginning stage of formation, in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you like the vision and would like to receive updates, I invite you to subscribe to the newsletter, which will be sent whenever there's news to share.
Starlings House is a community were we place a high value on getting along well with each other, including through Non-Violent Communication (NVC). We also strive to live in harmony with nature as much as possible by minimizing our carbon footprint, and everyone participates in decision-making, through sociocracy.
I'm Jana, the first founder of Starlings House. My first experience with intentional community was years ago in college, when I lived in the U.C. Berkeley Co-ops. It was such a great experience for me, I knew I'd live in another intentional community someday. In the past, I almost moved into two communities, but unfortunately, it didn't work out. However, over the years I've volunteered and visited and made friends who live in intentional communities in the Bay Area. Now that I see how fast the interest in intentional community is growing, and I still have a deep desire to live in one, I'm committed to co-founding Starlings House, a shared household with like-minded people that will be a place where a diverse group of people can pursue their interests, play, work and live a fulfilling life in community.
I'm a musician, a mom of two grown kids, a vegan (and respectful of others' food choices), a teacher, I like to code, and I like to line dance, I'm politically liberal, I was born in Oakland, was raised Lutheran, now I'm a New Thought follower, I'm into yoga and Pilates. I make my living as a coach, specializing in relationships. I live in Oakland.
Starlings House is open to all demographics and all interests. What we have in common is our dedication to harmony, sustainability and inclusion and our desire to create a place where we can pursue our personal interests as well as co-create activities and projects.
Harmony Together
Our core social values:
Living in harmony includes balancing individual needs and the needs of others. It means being willing to find unexpected solutions to disagreements. It means sharing the work of cleaning, arranging and maintaining our community.
Harmony with Nature
We minimize our carbon footprint as much as we can by reusing, recycling, composting, growing and/or raising a little food, sharing equipment, etc.
Decision-Making Together
Sociocracy is our decision-making process. Everyone's voice is heard. Everyone participates and contributes to making decisions.
Proposed location: Pacifica, California. It's next to the ocean (just south of San Francisco), quiet and beautiful. The house would be in one of the northern districts of Pacifica, most likely Pacific Manor or Edgemar.
The town has cafés, Pacifica State Beach, hiking trails, Sharp Park Golf Course, Pacifica Skating Park, a fishing pier.
See photo gallery of Pacifica on this page
There's easy freeway access to the San Francisco peninsula, the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge and the San Mateo/Hayward Bridge. There's easy and reliable bus service to the area's subway system, BART (Colma and Daly City stations) . Distances to nearby places: downtown San Francisco 20 min (13 mi); Daly City 7 min (4 mi); San Mateo 22 min (16 mi); San Jose 49 min (49 mi); Half Moon Bay 27 min (16 mi); San Francisco International Airport 10 min (9 mi).
Number of members: depending on the size of the house, 6 to 12 people.
Proposed move-in date: early 2025. At this time, the focus is on gathering a group of people who feel inspired by this vision.
Where did the name "Starlings" come from? I love starlings, because these amazing birds move as individuals, but also as one harmonious whole, in a magnificent flying dance across the sky.
This is the vision for Starlings House.
If it inspires you, if you think this might be a place where you would be happy, and you want to stay informed, I invite you to subscribe to the newsletter, and you'll receive all the updates.
