Why we’re starting a Housing Co-operative in Wirksworth
A small group of us recently attempted to purchase the Old Infant School in Wirksworth with the intention of converting it into a community asset providing co-housing for 8-10 adults and 2-4 children, as well as flexible community spaces ranging from a exhibition and events space to a community laundrette.
Sadly, in spite of offering the asking price we were trumped by a simpler sale. But after getting so close to our dream, and galvanising so much local support, we are more determined than ever to make this a reality.
So we wanted to share some of the ethos behind our housing co-operative, and the opportunities there are to be part of helping bring this exciting prospect to fruition.
What is a housing co-operative?
In simple terms a housing co-operative is a democratically governed entity made up of members who are tenants in a shared property. When a co-operative purchases a property it is owned by the co-operative and not a single individual or couple. This means a few things:
Each member pays rent to the co-op in order to live there - but that rent goes towards the co-op being able to own the property outright - meaning one day people could live in the property rent free.
Regardless of what each member invests financially, everyone that lives in the property has equal rights in relation to the property.
The property can only be sold on if the co-operative decides together to sell it, meaning that everyone has secure housing.
What is the value of a housing co-op to the people that live there?
There are many different reasons people choose to live in a housing co-op. Some of us have already owned property as part of a nuclear family set up and realised that raising children collectively is much more valuable to us than being on the ‘property ladder’. Others have been in precarious rental situations and want to have more control over their space. Some of us want to spend more communal time with others, while for others practical sharing of amenities such as wifi, energy bills and food, and responsibilities such as cooking and cleaning simply means their mental load will be reduced and free up for space for them for work or socialising outside of the co-op.
Plus it is generally a much more affordable way to live for everyone! We are aiming to ensure that our rental payments are as closely aligned to Local Housing Allowance as possible (pitched between the LHA of £315 per month for a room in a shared house and £470 for a single bedroom dwelling). This is substantially lower than the average monthly rent in England which is now £1,276 and £944 in Scotland. Even if you are employed these figures are unfathomable for many people, plus there are all sorts of life changes that can affect your ability to earn an income and we want to ensure our housing co-operative is resilient in response to those changes.
What is the value of a housing co-op to the local community?
One of the biggest issues within our society is how hard it is to afford and manage a home as a single person. For many people the only route to be able to buy a home is to do that with a partner or with support of family, and the alternative is to continue living with family or rent as part of house-share. In addition, even if you are living as part of a couple or family, due to the small unit size if one of you gets seriously sick or injured or loses your job the strain on the others in the household can be massive and have detrimental knock on effects for everyone.
Within Wirksworth in particular there is a serious lack of decent affordable housing for individuals, particularly those who are younger but no longer want to live with family.
Being more rural also means the job opportunities are more limited. Having access to affordable housing will enable people to explore self-employment and part-time roles, and sharing responsibilities enables those who may have caring responsibilities or disabilities that affect capacity to structure their life in a way that suits them.
In addition, living communally in this way promotes a much more sustainable way of living. When living with others it becomes easier to make more conscious choices about consumption - we’d intend as part of our co-op to work closely with Skopa and Pingle to get much of our food, and we’d invest in a car share to avoid too many unnecessary vehicles on the road.
Lastly wherever we end up we intend to ensure there is an aspect of it that is open to people beyond just the core members/tenants. Whether that’s a room that is available for short-term rentals, or larger spaces for organising community gatherings.
How are you financing this housing co-op?
Some of the members will contribute what is called ‘Loanstock’ to cover the deposit. Currently we have £100,000 raised to help us buy a property. But the more we raise the more choice we have around how to approach our housing co-op. For instance if we had more loanstock we could reduce the mortgage, and therefore reduce the rent payments for members or the cost of any community space. Or we could choose to buy a larger property which allowed for us house more people / have more flexibility in what we can do.
We’ll be offering opportunities for people outside of the co-operative to contribute ‘Loanstock’ too in return for a small amount of interest. Many of the investors within co-ops are ethically-minded and seeking to generate community value as much as anything else so tend to ask for interest of 1-3% (which is still just as good as some ISAs).
In addition we’ll be seeking opportunities to get grant-funding - particularly if we took over any existing community asset or heritage site in order to regenerate the space and create community offerings.
Why don’t more people do this?
There are so many people that would benefit from pooling resources in this way. Whether it’s single people struggling to navigate the cost and time of running a household on their own, young families where both parents have to work, or older people who need a small amount of regular support and company but want to otherwise live independently. And yet when we talk to people about our plans it is often the first time they’ve considered this way of living, particularly because many of us are so conditioned to seek certain forms of ‘stability’ and ‘progress’ within our living situations.
Within some cultures living collectively is very normal, and intergenerational households in particular are common. There have also been many schemes such as HomeShare seeking to support individuals to live together for mutual benefit. But in comparison to these kinds of scenarios, the specific structure of a Co-operative allows the members more control over their living situation and creates the foundations for designing a whole world together that meets the needs of everyone.
However, the support available is very niche and requires you to know people or networks who can help. We’ve found Radical Routes to be incredibly important in helping us to understand what we want to create and how to go about doing that.
Even if our co-operative isn’t the right kind of group or set up for you, if this has piqued your interest then we’d encourage you to explore more. There are hundreds of different style of co-housing and intentional communities. And there desperately needs to be more people working to set up something like this because we have an increasing housing crisis in this country and we need to be more proactive in designing the future we deserve. We hope that in sharing our journey it can become a blue print for others hoping to create a different way of living.
How can I support what you are doing?
There are three core things we need to make our dream a reality:
People - whether you would like to explore becoming a member, or just want to get the word out for us. We’ve not yet designed our membership joining process but our co-op intends to be an anti-oppressive and democratic space that prioritises collective care so you will need to align with those principles.
Property - we’re still on the look out for a home for our co-operative. We’d love to repurpose an old building that would otherwise go to ruin or be taken over by commercial property developers, but we are open to all sorts of suggestions.
Investment - if you are interested in supporting us financially we are currently designing our loan mechanisms and would be ready to start accepting contributions in the next few months. We’ll also be running fundraisers etc so keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events at &Breathe and let us know if you have a fundraising idea.
If any of this sounds like something you’d be interested in being part of drop us a line via ray@and-breathe.org sharing how you’d like to be involved.
