weird dude in berkeley owns 3 houses

[nobo]

i just had a meeting with this weird old hippie kinda guy who owns an amazing lot in south berkeley. theres 2 one bedroom apartments and a giant 6 bedroom house in the back and a small 2 bedroom cottage on the side. he wants to start an "intentional" community within the next month or so. so heres the ups and downs. the downs are: the houses are all pretty wrecked. not much structural damage from what i saw when i walked around, but the roof on the big house definately needs some tarring or new shingles. the dude is cool. but kinda off. he sad he bought the houses for a hippie group (cult) in the late 80's and when the group disbanded he was stuck with these houses. so hes been living there...pretty much alone for the past three years. i guess he tried renting it out before that and it didnt go so well.
here are the ups: the place is fucking amazing. theres at least a quarter acre fruit orchard in the backyard, with a geodesic dome and a well. i mean the wells dried up, but whatever, its a well! the best part is is that he wants to make it so that if people help him gut the house and make it liveable for a bunch of people he will let you live there indefinately rent free. and if you even just help for a day youll get infinite crashing status.
so yea thats about it. i guess pm me for more information. i hope im not just talking this up and it falls through, but it seems pretty cool.
oh and its strange because theres at least 50 bikes strewn about the property, tandems too. so i had this hunch that he was kidnapping hipsters and punks and eating them, but still....FREE RENT!

 

[BrokeWhiteBoy]

NO WAY! I gotta meet this dude!

PMing you now.

 

[Bendixontherails]

this kinda shit happens.

I lived in a house for 4 months, averaging10-15 people living on the property at any given time, and all we had to do was help the owner build a fence around the yard and repair the broken windows and doors. we pitched our stamp together and everybody stayed fed, and that's where I first really learned to make whisky.he got his housed fixed up for just material cost and tons of kids got a place to live for the winter.

 

[llamer]

sounds bizarre. what street is this on? makes me think of the co-op Fort Awesome, which has both a large plantation of fruit trees and a geodesic dome in the back yard.

 

[rebequah]

How do I get there? Are there other people working or is it a go and begin the work kind of situation?

 

[nobo]

fell thru. haha. house was sold. my bad, just got too excited. ill post more if there are any updates!

 

[dirty_feet]

Well - thanks for the update at any rate. Way to look out dude!

 

[bikegeek666]

hmm, someone was telling me about this thing as well, just a week or so ago. if it's the same person i'm thinking of, it's someone who lived at hellarity and got hit by a bus a while ago and got a large settlement from the city that he used to buy some houses around town...so they're not squats, but they're fixer uppers and free rent is possible. oh, also, the "crazy" thing, i've heard he got some brain damage after the accident.

of course, i've only heard rumors, but the different people who've told me these things are all telling the same stories, so i believe it.

not sure how to get ahold of the guy or anything, but i'm pretty sure he's got a bunch of houses around that he's doing this with.