New Earthsong Members

Joel Hildebrandt & Judy Lightstone had been involved in trying to create co-housing communities in California for over 15 years.

They were deeply involved in the creation of Berkeley Cohousing, attending up to 4 meetings a week over a period of two years. It was devastating for them when, in the final stages, the contracting bids put the cost just above what they could afford.

Undeterred, they got involved with two other cohousing projects, although neither of these worked out for them either. As a result they became involved in establishing an "eco-neighbourhood" in the community where they were living at the time.

This involved building a park in the middle of the street where a parking lot had once stood and planting "micro-parks" at the various entrances to the neighbourhood to slow traffic and create a more people-friendly environment.

Joel was at the time lead teacher in a small public school in Berkeley called the School for Social Justice and Ecology while Judy had been spending her time achieving a cross-disciplinary PhD and writing a dissertation on the causes of and solutions to the escalation of human violence toward both people and the environment.

Deep dissatisfaction with the direction of US politics and US society led them to start looking for a place to bring their skills where their dreams of community might have a better chance to flourish.

When they visited Earthsong Eco-Neighbourhood's co-housing community in Waitakere in late 2006 they "fell in love" with the people and the community and knew they'd found their new home.

They made plans to move to New Zealand in 2007 with their daughter Sandy and applied to Prometheus for a bridging loan until they'd sold their house in California. That didn't take long and they're now happily settled at Earthsong and have a residual loan with us for their home in this welcoming and heart-warming community.