Among the rows of neutral-color houses that line 18th Avenue Northeast is a big blue house with a rainbow-colored flag. On the front porch, three individuals sit on a large red couch watching one play the guitar. The flag above their heads has the Italian word “pace,” meaning peace, emblazoned upon it. In this house, 14 people cooperatively share the work, cost and responsibility of living together. They try to make their home a safe space and strive to minimize sexism, transphobia, ableism, homophobia, racism and other oppressive actions and language. In their house, they refer to each other by their preferred gender pronouns.

Known as the Sherwood Cooperative, the housing co-op was started in the 1930s by a group of UW students. Together, these students created a place where people united voluntarily to meet common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a democratically controlled enterprise.

However, in the 1950s and 1960s, the network of 12 houses that were started in the U-District area dissolved. Today, Sherwood remains as the last official student co-op. But now, Sherwood is not exclusively a student co-op. Members include recent graduates and community activists as well as undergraduate and graduate students.

Sherwood is part of the Evergreen Land Trust, which oversees seven intentional communities. An intentional community is one that is focused on a common vision.

“We decide to live together and share our lives together in a community and build a place that is challenging and inspiring to make social change,” said senior and Sherwood member Helen Bennett.

Each member of the cooperative shares the responsibility of cooking, and every member cooks a vegan meal twice a month. They cook vegan meals to be as inclusive as possible. Since some members are allergic to soy and wheat and others are vegans, using this kind of cooking model allows everyone to eat together instead of cooking separate meals.

“We sign up to cook dinner twice a month, and we cook a vegan meal for 15 to 20 people,” said co-op member Ely Watts. “Dinner is to be ready at 6:30 p.m., and it’s a lovely community meeting. It’s not a requirement, but it’s a time for people to check in and share food and bond as a community. Sometimes old members come back and visit, and it’s great.”

Senior Joel Kramer used to live in a co-op called the P-Patch House and said that besides the reduced cost of living in a cooperative, the sense of responsibility and ownership that comes with sharing is beneficial but is something that not all people are ready to do. While members have a hand in the future of the co-op, they have responsibilities in terms of chores, house meetings and dinners.

“For me, it has been an educational experience,” Kramer said. “At UW, you learn about careers, but being in a co-op, you learn about how to structure your life so that you depend on others. It’s a family by choice.”

Members are divided into work teams: food, finances, membership and maintenance. Most of the members are on multiple teams, and several people have various chores.

One of the reasons they have a membership process is to ensure that people understand that there are responsibilities before signing an agreement.

“The teams are the pillars of the house,” Watts said. “Since Sherwood Cooperative owns this house, we need to take care of it, and we take care of ourselves. There is no landlord here, because we own the house.”

Each of the 14 rooms in the co-op has a distinct style that reflects the fun and vibrant personality of the house. The living room has green, orange and yellow walls covered in posters and artwork. The four restrooms, named the pink bathroom, the purple bathroom, the presidential bathroom and the basement bathroom, also have unique décor. Aside from pink walls, the pink bathroom has a map of the world covered in tacks representing where members have lived and visited.

“The co-op has been a co-op for 75 years, and we have been in this house for almost 40 years, so there’s a lot of history here,” Watts said. “I’ve seen pictures from eight to 10 years ago, and the rooms were white, and today the walls are multicolored. Everyone leaves things behind.”

Today, there is still a silhouette of a member who was pregnant 10 years ago, and beside her silhouette is the name of her child, August. August’s height is written on the wall from when he first visited the house.

“Something about a co-op, there is a balance of shared space and private space,” Bennett said. “The shared space is a sacred space, because it is the area where all community things happen. So here, our common space is the dining room, living room and kitchen. The private space is the bedroom, and it’s a place where people go when they don’t want to be around everyone.”

Even though the cooperative does not have a landlord, there are still quiet hours — after 11 p.m. on weekdays and after 2 a.m. on weekends. Rules are set to account for everyone’s comfort and needs, and since no one member is in charge or the go-to person, everyone is equally in charge and held responsible.

“All of our decisions in the house are made through a consensus decision process, which means everyone’s voice is accounted for in the final decision, and we won’t go ahead until everyone is on board with the decision,” Watts said. “We have a well-developed process, and it can take a long time, but it ensures that the whole community is vested in the decision.”

The co-op has a garden in the front yard where they grow carrots, squashb peas, strawberries, medicinal plants and mustard greens. The house has three chickens, Brown Hen, Evil Force and Peepsiemoonball, who were raised in the house from chicks. A bike rack and compost bin reduce dependence on and build alternatives to industries and institutions that are destructive to the environment and to humans.

Labeled jars of navy beans, lentils, brown rice and spice racks line the wall in the kitchen. Most of the food purchases the co-op makes are in bulk, and they invest in many organic products and in Community Supported Agriculture, which is a way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.

“Sherwood is the co-op in the area, and the P-Patch House is inspired by it, and others are inspired by it,” Kramer said. “It has a ripple effect on the community.”

The P-Patch House started in 2007 with a group of friends who wanted to live together. Due to their political values and the recreational things they have done together, a traditional house would not do. However, unlike Sherwood, the P-Patch House does not own the property, and therefore the renters have fewer choices with what they can to do with the house.

Alice Roesch-Knapp, a senior and member of the P-Patch House, said that as they continue to live together, they are seeing some divergent interests. Some people want to make an explicit structure with a mission, values and a clear directive, then define it as a co-op. Others are less interested in defining it but still would act with love and respect for each other.

“The cooperative structure is important to realizing our social interdependence,” she said. “It’s a positive way to form relationships and encourage healthy relationships. The idea of a co-op is a beneficial model, which share goods, demands less of the planet and provides a place for people to live in a community together.”

The P-Patch has nine bedrooms and members engage in house projects such as gardening and sharing food and costs. The house is next to a p-patch, and members are involved in helping the community garden.

“There are institutional co-ops such as Sherwood, and less-defined living spaces, like ours, and then also less defined ones that are friends who want to also share resources and support each other,” Roesch-Knapp said.

She said the people living in the house next to the P-Patch House are friends of theirs, and they share food as well.

“College is about deciding how you want to live your life,” Kramer said. “A co-op develops that sense of morality and a real way to sustain it. There’s practical stuff, what it’s like to jar jams and pickles and play bluegrass music, [and] there’s a culture that goes with it of self-sufficiency and individuality.”

Reach reporter Charlotte Anthony at lifestyles@dailyuw.com.