Stone Soup Cooperative is a housing cooperative

Housing cooperative

A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. ...

 created in Chicago, Illinois in 1997. A collective of activists working and living in Chicago began renting a former convent

Convent

A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

 with the goal of creating an intentional community

Intentional community

An intentional community is a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They...

for "Joy and Justice."

The cooperative began by renting the Ashland house and sharing it between its 18 members. In 2000, Stone Soup expanded with an additional 11 members and the purchase of a large house on Leland St., near the original building. By the spring of 2002 a third building on Hoyne St., on Chicago's south side, was added to the collective, housing a further 7 members.