Community of Urbana-Champaign Cooperative Housing, or COUCH, is an association of
student housing cooperatives in
Urbana __NOTOC__
Urbana can refer to:
Places Italy
*Urbana, Italy
United States
*Urbana, Illinois
**Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois
*Urbana, Indiana
* Urbana, Iowa
*Urbana, Kansas
* Urbana, Maryland
*Urbana, ...
and
Champaign,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
. It is a member of
North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO).
COUCH began in 1997 as an umbrella organization for the independent housing co-ops in the Champaign–Urbana area, but was also founded with the vision of creating a larger co-op community to advance co-oping, establish community, and achieve
economies of scale
In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...
within the co-op community. It currently consists of four houses:
*Gwendolyn Brooks Cooperative (
Urbana __NOTOC__
Urbana can refer to:
Places Italy
*Urbana, Italy
United States
*Urbana, Illinois
**Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois
*Urbana, Indiana
* Urbana, Iowa
*Urbana, Kansas
* Urbana, Maryland
*Urbana, ...
), a 14-member house, opened its doors as a member-controlled co-op house in August 2001.
*Harvest House Cooperative (
Urbana __NOTOC__
Urbana can refer to:
Places Italy
*Urbana, Italy
United States
*Urbana, Illinois
**Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois
*Urbana, Indiana
* Urbana, Iowa
*Urbana, Kansas
* Urbana, Maryland
*Urbana, ...
), another 14-member house, was also founded in 2001.
*Greenhouse (
Urbana __NOTOC__
Urbana can refer to:
Places Italy
*Urbana, Italy
United States
*Urbana, Illinois
**Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois
*Urbana, Indiana
* Urbana, Iowa
*Urbana, Kansas
* Urbana, Maryland
*Urbana, ...
), a 9-member co-op, sprang from the ashes of the five-person Phoenix cooperative (2001-2010) in 2010, which had in turn sprung from the ashes of the previous Green House cooperative (1985-2001) in 2001.
*La Casa Grande Colectiva (
Urbana __NOTOC__
Urbana can refer to:
Places Italy
*Urbana, Italy
United States
*Urbana, Illinois
**Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois
*Urbana, Indiana
* Urbana, Iowa
*Urbana, Kansas
* Urbana, Maryland
*Urbana, ...
), founded around 1970, houses seven members and is the oldest independent co-op in Champaign–Urbana.
These housing co ops provide affordable housing to students and young people. Each room is rented out separately, and each room is priced according to its size. On top of rent, each tenant pays a separate bill for utilities and food. Although rules change from house to house, it is customary that every night, one or two people cook for the house and in return, they are cooked for the other 6 nights of the week. Some houses are vegan or vegetarian, while other houses serve meat. Many commodities are included for free including free access to a washer and dryer and free printing. Many houses allow pets.
References
External links
*
Non-profit organizations based in Illinois
Residential buildings in Illinois
Student housing cooperatives in the United States
Urbana, Illinois
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