I find myself in need of a house, minus those elemented required for a home. However, if I am going to get an apartment, I might as well make some good of it by openning it up to other uses.

I am very interested in cooperative housing situations and openning new avenues of personal improvement for people, particularly those disenfranchized by society. I'd like to offer homeless people in the Central Square/Cambridgeport area a deal: a place to live (a bed and general use of the apartment space and its collectively-owned resources) in exchange for 2 hours of their work a day. That work might take the form of community service, craft work, menial chores, or working for pay for another organization, or it may be for skill development and the later use of those skills. Hopefully it would be a combination of all of these. That time could also be spent doing household chores, like cooking and cleaning, building furniture, making warm clothing, or tending a community garden. For an additional 2 hours of work a day, I may be able to offer my boarders full food.

Legally, I might be able to combine a contract for subletting the apartment with the legal setup of a program called Timedollar which allows people to "exchange" hours of each others' work through a deposit and withdrawl "hour-for-an-hour" banking system.

I would start the first month by offering the deal to a single homeless person, selected I-don't-know-how. I would conduct an interview and background check to see what chores and directions for training would make sense. Then I would sign a one-month contract with that person. By the next month, I think I could have saved enough money (from my own job) to buy another bed and expand the program.