New Beginnings
May 2026
by Fumi
Location of new house.
Dandelion House is expanding! We are in contract to purchase our next door neighbor Ed’s house, and, if all goes smoothly, will close on June 1.
We are excited for the growth of Dandelion House. Our vision includes taking down the fence between the two properties, adding a larger community gathering space, and purchasing a pre-fab 2-bedroom structure, thereby adding a total of six bedrooms to our community. Our goal is to invite one or two full-time Catholic Workers to join our work, and to increase the number of guests we are able to support. Our friend John jokes that Dandelion House is becoming Dandelion Empire. We like to think of it as Dandelion Village, where the sharing of daily life leads to the belonging, support, and thriving to all who live here.
Meanwhile, to our South, the Catholic Worker community in San Jose, CA, is closing its doors after 50 years. Casa de Clara was started by Peter and Norma Miron-Conk in the 1970s as a house for women and children, then operated by a succession of Catholic Workers and women religious (including Notre Dame, Sacred Heart, and Dominican Sisters). I lived and worked there from 2013-2018, and for the last two and a half years of that time, Julian and Lisa joined me there.
As a member of the Board of Directors of Casa de Clara, Lisa and I participated in the decision to close the house. For years we had struggled to find full-time Catholic Workers to anchor the community, and the beautiful 7-bedroom house in downtown San Jose was being under-utilized. Closing the house was a difficult decision, and a tender moment for those of us with fond memories of the community.
Dandelion House is expanding!
The front of Ed’s house
One house closes, and another expands. Throughout both processes, we’ve done our best to remain attentive to the leading of the Spirit. The house owned by Casa de Clara will go to Amigos de Guadalupe, a grassroots nonprofit working with the immigrant community in San Jose. The money from the sale will go to Bread & Roses in Santa Cruz, CA, a vibrant, up and coming Catholic Worker community looking to purchase a day center to serve the unhoused. In this way, the closing of Casa de Clara will seed two new projects. The Spirit is alive.
Nothing is meant to last forever. Perhaps its precisely when we are in the process of building that our spiritual practice calls us to remember that “not one stone will remain on top of another” (Mark 13:2). Even as we are in a period of growth for Dandelion House, our goal is not to establish a permanent institution that will outlive us and define our “legacy.” Our hope, rather, is to participate in the flow of Life, or as the ancient sage Lao Tzu put it, “to hold fast to the Tao,” which “never does anything, yet through it all things are done” (Tao te Ching 37). We will put down roots, here in the Oak Grove neighborhood. We will live, pray, and work together. We will attempt to create in microcosm a “new society within the shell of the old, where it is easier for people to be good,” as Catholic Worker co-founder Peter Maurin liked to say. And when the time comes, we, or those who follow us, will let this manifestation of the Spirit die, so that something new can take its place. May we be given the grace to hold all our works lightly.
The next 9 to 12 months will be full as we repair and upgrade the facilities on our new property. It is your support that has sustained us thus far, and we know we’ll be leaning on you again for financial and volunteer support to enact our vision. Thank you for journeying with us. May Dandelion House – like a little village – support each of our belonging.