Santa Cruz Student Housing Co-ops

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The Santa Cruz Student Housing Co-operative (SCSHC) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that helps to manage two housing co-operatives in Santa Cruz, CA. The Cesar Chavez House is at 316 Main Street, and the Zami House (named for, or in reference to Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde) is at 807 Laurel Street. SCSHC was founded in 1991-92, when a group of UCSC students involved in anti-gulf war activism rented a house together on Bixby Street in Santa Cruz. This eventually led to the purchase of 316 Main Street by NASCO Properties. Additionally, prior to the purchase of 807 Laurel Street, SCSHC leased the Epworth House on Santa Cruz's famous West Cliff Drive.

Zami House from Laurel Street

The properties are leased from NASCO Properties, which is a 501(c)(2) title-holding corporation for North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO).

1 Running the Co-ops
2 House activities
3 Policies
4 Contact
5 External link
6 Footnotes

[edit] Running the Co-ops

Each of the houses maintains a degree of autonomy from SCSHC, to which they pay rent. Weekly meetings are held in each house, where the decisions which guide the members of the co-op in their actions are made. The process to make decisions used in both houses is consensus decision-making. Each house has representatives on the SCSHC board, a small group (again run by consensus). A yearly meeting of the membership of both houses (which is around forty people currently) uses voting to elect executive members to positions on the board. These positions include:

President
Vice-president (traditionally the representative to NASCO)
Secretary
Treasurer
Education (this position has a vital role in spending the education budget, fulfilling the 501(c)(3) criteria)

A full membership meeting in the Zami courtyard

Cesar Chavez house (popularly known as "Chavez") currently has around 22 members. Zami's population is around 21. These numbers reflect the numbers of renting members. At each house, the possibility of boarding exists, whereby a member of the house resides elsewhere (often in a car on the street) and particpates fully in the house otherwise. The co-ops both operate a co-ordinator scheme, whereby members of the house are elected (again, an extraordinary meeting is held where voting is used) to co-ordinator positions. The UCSC quarter scheme is used at Zami with co-ordinators serving one quarter, although you don't have to be a student to participate in SCSHC. Chavez elects coordinators until they stand down (some positions have conventional terms, for example the finance coordinator lasts for two quarters). The responsibilities and titles are listed below:

Kitchen Coordinator - organizes shoppers to buy food, and coordinates bulk orders, ensures a certain level of "sanitation"
Finance Coordinator - ensures rent is paid to SCSHC, conducts general financial operations
Workshift/Loveshift Coordinator - organises all members of the house in their weekly chores as well as work holidays
Garden Coordinator - (Attempts to) Maintain the garden and other plants on the property
Membership Coordinator - ensures the house has a full quota of renting members
Maintenance Coordinator - organises external contractors to fix things, unless they can fix it themselves
House Rep - respresents the house's interest to the SCSHC board meeting, coordinated external house relations with NASCO and other parties (at least in the Ellie Biddle-version of the role)

Workshifts (known euphemistically as 'loveshifts' at Chavez) are a major part of co-op living. Between 5-7 hours are spent weekly by each house member on tasks that contribute to the running of the house. For instance, 3 workshift hours per week is the assessed contribution made by cooking dinner for the entire house by a pair of house members (6 hours split between two cooks).

[edit] House activities

House activities vary widely. Some are included below:

House shows - the co-ops scene (subculture) is an institution in the alternative culture of Santa Cruz. Regular house shows reinforce this position.

A Chavez party in full swing
Toast - the cult¹ of toast inhabits both houses.
Mouthblasting - a subculture even within the house, whereby initiates have water squirted from a distance into their mouths from a hose. It is frowned upon by certain house members, who point out the extraordinary wetness it causes in the Chavez kitchen/common room/hallway.
Studying - various members of both houses are students at Cabrillo College, UCSC, and various other institutions
Education - house members must contribute to the education of the general community or themselves. This is distinct from studying, and takes place for the continuing 501(c)(3) status of SCSHC.
Community Radio - Zami houses FRSC, Freak Radio in its basement. Actual radio transmission is made from a secret location off-property, so no FCC violation is made on the 807 property.
Food Not Bombs - both Chavez and Zami have been cook houses for Food Not Bombs, this tradition seems to come and go depending on the current group living at each house

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Pumpkin liberation - a Fall time event
Assasins - an event enjoyed, and sometimes "dreaded" by co-op'ers
Housecest
The Game

[edit] Policies

SCSHC continually strives to be explicitly and actively LGBTQIAP-friendly, anti-racist, anti-sexist, feminist, inclusive and non-partisan. The houses are in charge of their own activities for enforcing this policy. The houses manage to maintain a fairly even balance between the sexes, although both are predominantly white. The personal is political² in the co-ops.