10 September 2003
COMMUNITY HOUSE
PROJECT REPORT
2002-3
CLOSETS
challenges along the way
Our closets were often cluttered and frustrating to navigate. In the dark corners of a closet we sometimes hide things we don’t want to see.
What were the major challenges of the Community House?
One of the major challenges we faced was our tumultuous relationship with our landlord. We shared the house with her and found this arrangement could not accommodate our needs.
As a group we had to make a lot of decisions to resolve conflict and sacrificed a lot of tenant freedoms in order to meet the landlord’s demands and continue our stay in the house.
During these conflicts with the landlord, our families, friends, neighbours and Circle of Mentors gave us a lot of moral support, advice and resources. In the future we are going to make sure we are the only ones occupying a house and make sure we are able to have guests, play music during liturgies and social gatherings.
We will continue to seek healthy relationships with new landlords and make sure their expectations are reasonable and support our basic needs as a community.
After a few months of living together, we realized we hadn’t spent enough time building the relationships in our group but directed more of our energy into logistical tasks of moving into the house.
There were interpersonal conflicts we experienced in the eight months we lived together (a normal part of human relationships). At one point we asked Henri, the United Church chaplain at the University, to lead us through a conflict resolution process. He is someone we trust and is one of our Mentors.
It really helped to have someone from outside the community to give us perspective and help us listen to one another and allow us to identify some of the tension in the community. Overall we examined difficulties like exclusion, poor communication, accountability, lack of involvement in the life of the house, lack of personal space, lack of trust and commitment, failing to complete tasks or chores, not enough intentional fun time together as a group.
We faced other problems around following through with things we wanted to do like group check ins, sharing our life stories, liturgies, adding things to the website etc.
From within the house it was difficult to gain perspective or to see if what we were doing had any meaning or significance. We often focused on the things we were struggling with or hadn’t accomplished. Having the Circle of Mentors and being able to meet with them really gave us a positive outside perspective and encouragement.
Of course we also grappled with faith and spirituality and how to express or advertise this aspect as a part of the Community House. This is a main factor why we couldn’t agree on a name for the house. We struggled to do all the things we wanted to do as a house because of our other commitments like work and school.
NEXT > methods & details
CONTENTS | Introduction
front entrance | how we got started
bathroom | owning the project
bedrooms | individuals within the whole
living room | ecumenism & community life
kitchen | outreach & hospitality
closets | challenges along the way
balcony | methods & details
dock | looking ahead
