On the corner of Alder Street and 18th Avenue, a big blue house peeks out from behind a front garden. Standing between beige apartment complexes and the University of Oregon’s brick-filled campus, the Janet Smith House brings a bright, welcoming touch to the neighborhood.
The home is one of three houses making up the Students’ Cooperative Association, a nonprofit housing cooperative that has been in Eugene since the 1930s. Each of the SCA’s houses has a different focus for its residents, all centering on community through social action and sharing.
The SCA’s housing model stands apart from apartments and houses as one of the most affordable options in an area with a high cost of living, and even higher rates of homelessness.
Over the years, Eugene’s homelessness rate has steadily increased. In 2019, there were 2,165 homeless people in Lane County, according to the county’s Point-In-Time Homeless Count. In January 2025, that number increased by 62% to 3,509 people experiencing homelessness.
Amid a homelessness crisis steadily increasing in Eugene, new apartments are being built with prices that some renters find unaffordable.
Uriah Barzola is a resident of the Janet Smith House and the head of finances of the house. He pays $470 for rent each month, $390 of which goes into a collective SCA pot as membership dues. Meanwhile, in the newest apartment on the block, Chapter Eugene, the cheapest room is $959 per month.
City Housing Analyst Amber Friedman spoke on the components contributing to a lack of affordable units during a December Eugene Planning Commission meeting on rent burden.
“There’s increasing inflation, high interest rates, and supply chain demands that are proving to negatively impact the likelihood that developers of all scales and sizes can produce buildings in pace with our need,” she said. “And we’ve also seen a decline in federal investments in housing.”
The SCA aims to combat these components with a cooperative housing plan that uses buildings already planted in the community.
Once they’ve signed a lease, renters in the SCA’s houses become members of the nonprofit itself and, subsequently, co-owners of the house they live in.
Dinner table decisions
Barzola has lived in the Janet Smith House for six months. He said he describes it to friends as “nonprofit housing without a landlord.”
Without a person in charge or a profit drive, members decide the cost of living that works for them.
Barzola and his eight roommates have dinner together once a week to meet and make decisions about the house. “It works on the idea of consensus, so we all have to be in agreement about something for it to work,” he said. “Intentional living is a really cool aspect of it, and I think that’s what makes it affordable.”
The SCA uses a “group equity model,” where members pay rent and become co-owners as opposed to buying shares of the organization. Buying shares can be expensive. And, when a resident wants to leave, they would have to be bought out.
The SCA’s model allows for easier short-term housing, said Maggie O’Connor, the director of properties for the North American Students of Cooperation.
“There’s a low barrier to entry as opposed to buying equity-growing shares,” O’Connor said. “And there’s a higher turnover. It’s easier to leave.”
Amelie Haberman lived in the Janet Smith House from June 2021 to June 2022 while pursuing a master’s in communication from the University of Oregon. As a student and teacher in Eugene, Haberman looked for affordable short-term housing during her time in the city.
“I wanted a place that was affordable because I knew I wasn’t making money at that time,” she said.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, Haberman was also looking for a community.
The co-op model provided the perfect combination of the two, and Haberman found the model fit her short-term needs. She paid less than $700 a month for a house with a full kitchen, living room, yard and 15 roommates.
The residents shared responsibilities equitably. With their own stake in the upkeep and maintenance of the house, the word “cooperative” was a key part of the housing model.
Some roommates cooked communal dinners. Others tended to the garden, and everyone helped each other out as best they could.
Haberman said the benefit of the house wasn’t just the low rent, it was the support from the residents themselves.
At one point during her stay, her dog had an accident and needed to go to the ER. “One of my housemates drove me and my dog to the emergency vet,” Haberman remembered. “Later, folks in the house were like, ‘How much was the vet bill? Can we help chip in?’ And a ton of the people helped cover that bill because it was huge.”
An 'unusual' living arrangement
While community is one of the most positive parts of cooperative living, O’Connor said it can have its drawbacks.
The first obstacle co-ops confront is social criticisms of the housing style.
“The model of co-op living is not how dominant culture expects people to live,” O’Connor said. “It’s considered unusual for a large group of unrelated adults to live together.”
Barzola said the SCA’s social action-focused living communities can also create conflict within the house. There can be disagreements or frustrations that come with living in close quarters.
Then there are zoning regulations. Houses zoned as single-family homes may have limits on how many unrelated people can live in that building.
When co-ops are possible, O’Connor said, they are effective, affordable housing options and tend to remain in the community for years. And she said they can be an emotional investment for their residents.
“There’s a lot of loneliness in the U.S.; there’s a lot of detachment,” O’Connor said. “Co-ops are the opposite of that. Often, people feel like they’re an antidote to that.”
For Haberman, co-op living was also a deep learning experience and an opportunity to gain insights from people of all walks of life under one roof.
“I learned a ton and was definitely politically transformed by so many of the conversations that I had with people who are more radical and have a lot more experience in affordable housing and working with different kinds of activists,” she said. “What they shared with me was very valuable and it’s deeply impacted me and my practices.”
For Barzola, the Janet Smith House has quickly become his favorite housing style. The SCA has lasted almost a century because of its community focus and affordability.
“We all believe in something bigger than ourselves, and that is being able to afford to live,” Barzola said. “I think part of the key to affordable housing in this country is co-ops.”
