Students have many housing options, including staying in dorms on campus and renting apartments or houses in Downtown Binghamton. But on Binghamton’s South Side, a different way of living is taking shape.
The Genome Collective is a cooperative house that was started in February, and is located at 65 Park Ave. on the South Side of Binghamton. The Collective is made up of four people who are dedicated to living as a group, building a community through fostering strong, interpersonal connections. This is achieved through gathering and cooking food together, sharing possessions and making decisions as a group.
Members of the Collective are also passionate about fostering food justice, or sustainable food, within the Binghamton community. They plan to grow their own vegetables now that the winter is over, in addition to acquiring food through gleaning. Also known as dumpster diving, gleaning involves gathering food that is not yet spoiled or whose packaging is slightly damaged from grocery store dumpsters.
Maximus Thaler, a first-year graduate student studying biology, is a founding member of the Genome Collective. He said that the Collective could provide an example for Binghamton residents as well as BU students by exhibiting how it can foster community and healthy social support.
“I feel really strongly that this is a way of living that is more conducive to who I am as a person,” Thaler said. “I think it’s a way of living that is more suitable to many, many people. And as a society, we don’t know it yet.”
The group is currently searching for like-minded people to join the collective, although involvement would not require living with them in the house. To help inform potential members, they have put together a questionnaire on their website, genomecollective.space, that details the Collective lifestyle. Rebecca Herman, another founding member of the Collective and a Binghamton resident, said that the questionnaire is meant to be informative rather than function as an application.
“It demonstrates interest,” Herman said. “We’re probably going to meet and talk with every person who applies regardless, but it shows us that they are serious about this community — not just looking for an empty room.”
Sean Massey, a professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at BU, as well as a former Binghamton city council member, is the landlord of the house that holds the Genome Collective. He said he spent time living in a housing cooperative in Austin, Texas, and that he is supportive of their goals and hopes that more people get involved.
“I’ve had experience living in this way, and it’s certainly not completely out-of-the-blue unique,” Massey said. “People around the country, around the world do it. This is, I think, a sort of healthy and sustainable and human way to live.”
In the future, Thaler said that he hopes the Collective can expand beyond just the current members of the house and exist as a created community.
“I think it’s really important that this place has a life beyond its individual members,” Thaler said. “The self is the thing that stays the same as everything else changes, so my goal for this house is that it could stay constant even if we all moved away. I will know that I have succeeded in this project when I can leave and the house can still function.”