Seeking Housemates

Bremen House has been around in various iterations since 2010. 

Core values specific to our community are:

• Queer-centered space

• Shared vegetarian food and meals 

• Welcoming guests (especially international) and gatherings (safely)

• Shared decision making, open communication, and healthy conflict resolution.

• No dogs, minimal drugs/alcohol

We play board games like Cascadia or Wingspan, mushroom hunt, go on outdoor paddling, camping, swimming, hiking, xc skiing, and/or fossil hunting adventures, and generally do fun things frequently. We like to host gatherings such as house shows, cob oven pizza parties, friendsgiving, or solstice celebrations. We often do community solidarity work as a house and as individuals. 

We collaborate on the chores and projects needed to keep the house running and are committed to communal food practices including rotating cooking/cleaning duties and maintaining a mostly vegetarian kitchen. We set aside time for house meetings, currently Sunday evenings, and get together for house dinners throughout the week.

House Manual: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-hBbZIyXrAJBVNC9YvQ3DYiLJKOStpdUOCSmmzvV08g/edit?usp=sharing

Housemates: 

C: 45, she/they. Nonprofit consultant/grant writer, musician, mushroom and other forager, loves swimming and other outdoor things. Also likes to make and fix things, travel, and bring people together. The owner of the house, and as such, strongly values community and transparency as well as shared decision making.

E: She/her, they/them. I am 30 years old, trans and non-binary, and have recently moved to Portland from North Carolina thanks to the Relocation Network. Many of my interests I left in NC, and I have been discovering new interests. I enjoy hiking and exploring the city, as well as board games and writing. I value direct and honest communication and no holding of grudges. Humility is also a plus as well.

L: they/them. Professional skier, activist, artist. Hasn’t provided bio yet. :-)

Location: Portsmouth neighborhood in N portland.  30-45 minute bike ride/ hour bus ride to downtown, abundant street parking.

Supportive community - Shared dinners, hanging out, working on projects, music playing, outdoor adventures.

Cozy house - Common spaces, good kitchen/other tools, guest room, large number of musical instruments, large collection of art materials, projector, board games and puzzles.

Kitchen - Communal food is vegetarian, fresh produce(backyard garden+community plot), canned goods, brewing projects, fermentation.

Beautiful yard - bountiful garden, two nut trees, six fruit trees, grapevines, gazebo, fire pit, cob pizza oven.

Animal companions -  One kitty. Unlikely to have more. No dogs.

We are looking for a housemate who is interested in the potential of a long-term fit and who is actively seeking and preferably has some experience with community living. We prefer housemates that don’t spend all their time in their rooms or out. You should want to hang with us at least occasionally. Please be amicable, tolerant, and excited to engage with people. Comfortable with direct and kind communication, communal decision-making, conflict mediation, and specifically looking for community/collective housing. Make sure our core values sound like a good fit to you. Available Monday evenings for house meetings, around some evenings for shared meals, and willing to cook & clean once a week and work to keep the house running smoothly. We are a queer and trans centered house. Mostly drug-free (infrequent pot outside is ok);  can enjoy occasional social alcohol consumption but not frequent drunkenness. Probably no additional cats are sought and absolutely no dogs.

We maintain more conservative COVID policies because if one of us gets sick, we all do. We are anti-ableist and it is our goal to respect the needs of the most vulnerable in our community by doing our best to reduce the spread of COVID while supporting mental and social health needs. We maintain current recommended vaccinations and boosters for COVID (and flu etc). Revision: If housemate feels revision of code or Low/High Spread status is necessary, bring up at house meeting. Otherwise, check in ~ every 6 months

We review house applications at our Sunday or Monday evening house meetings and work to respond within the following week. When we are seeking new housemates we can receive a lot of applications and balancing responses with our daily lives can be difficult. Please be patient with responses and communication during this process.

If it seems like a good fit we will offer a video-call interview, then possibly follow up with a tour/in-person meeting. New housemates are selected by consensus of current housemates. After a three-month trial period, we do a mutual evaluation of the relationship. The new housemate may then be invited to sign a 6-month or 1-year lease.