Stephen Hill MRICS Chair, UK Cohousing Network RICS Representative to Housing Forum

1. HLIN Annual ConferenceThe Return of Relational Housing Workshop: March 11th 2016‘A’ is for…Autonomy Stephen Hill MRICS Chair, UK Cohousing Network RICS Representative to Housing Forum & DCLG Housing Sounding Board www.cohousing.org.uk

2. A definition of ‘satisfactory housing’ A satisfactory housing standard is one that provides a foundation for, rather than being a barrier to, good physical and mental health, personal development and the fulfilment of life objectives.

3. Cultural barriers to autonomous citizen action Bridport Cohousing CLT “Over my dead body will we do another (community) self-build scheme …it brings out the worst aspects of human nature… greed, selfishness, hypocrisy… complete pre-occupation with what they want!” Housing association CEO, England Interviewee ‘The Future of Community Self Build in England and Scotland’ (JRF 2000) Hill S et al

4. Negative Narrative: Market and Policy Failure “We’ll do it ourselves!” • Implicit criticism of existing mainstream policy makers and providers • Mismatch of expectations…Who is in control? Who is accountable to whom? • Absence of demand-side voice in policymaking • Inflexible, non-adaptive, and limiting (to innovation and learning) commissioning practice… commissioning the known and knowable. K1 Cohousing

5. Positive/Different Narrative:The people-powered or ‘sharing’ economy Interplay between disruptive practice and new technologies in the rebuilding of post-crash economies, based on reciprocal relationships, especially in the provision of relational goods: • Local food systems • Co-working hubs • Co-operative businesses • Local banking institutions • Peer-to-peer platforms, and • Collaborative forms of housing – Cohousing, CLTs, Coops, Self-Help Housing, and group custom build

6. Barriers to the ‘sharing economy’ for housing Context • Over-focus on new build • Under-capitalisation in a capital intensive activity Barriers shared with SME housebuilders • Restricted direct access to land • Risk aversion of banks to property related development finance • Conservative mortgage lending practice on ‘not normal’ homes Barriers unique to self-providers • Under-developed financial products to pool equity from individuals, and convert capital to revenue for development activity and care services

7. Co-(produced) housing for everyone! REALLY?

8. What is cohousing about? • Living collaboratively • Living more sustainably • Sharing space, time skills and…stuff • Combating loneliness • Respecting privacy

9. Cohousing is…planning for the way we want to live • Set up and run by people who live there • Residents are involved in the design from outset • About creating a community • ‘Design process’ promotes community living • Not about ‘grand designs’

10. A typical Cohousing community? • 8 to 40 households • Horizontal or consensus decision making • Smaller homes, with access to shared facilities • Placemaking and stewardship

11. Cohousing is flexible…and adaptive • New build, renovation of existing property, or set up in the street where you live • Different legal models • Different forms of ownership and renting • Intergenerational, communities of interest or age specific. • Hard work (not ‘difficult’),but incredible places to live. Threshold Cohousing Dorset

12. State of cohousing in the UK • 75 plus groups in development • 18 operating cohousing communities • 4 groups starting on site this year • 12 Senior Cohousing Groups • Strong media interest - Cohousing identified as one of ‘Top 10 Solutions’ to housing crisis • 25% annual increase searches for cohousing on Zoopla Copper Lane Cohousing Stoke Newington, London

13. UKCN Crowdsourced Manifesto 2015! • Genuine and permanent affordability for all • Rental as well as ownership • More working with other community housing organisations • Open to more diverse range of people • Reaching people who have never heard of cohousing (or coops or CLTs) but want what they can offer

14. OWCH, BarnetEnabled development with housing association Mixed tenure rent & leasehold flats Work ‘with’ Hanover HA Over-55’s On site

15. ‘The Project’: Housing and care for older people in the ‘sharing economy’ Action research programme of live ‘projects’: • Demonstrate the potential of cohousing for older people who don’t know anything about cohousing • Develop replicable ways of making cohousing projects happen • Dispel myths about difficulty and complexity • Contribute to the development of new services for and by older people Cannock Mill, Colchester

16. ‘The Project’: Housing and care for older people in the ‘sharing economy’ Action research programme of live ‘projects’: • Focus on retrofitting homes and communities to enable people to stay where they are, or to congregate in an area where they can benefit from neighbourly support &shared life patterns • Test variables: new/retrofit developments, new/retrofit lifetime neighbourhoods, urban/rural situations, ‘hot’/‘cold’ housing markets, multi-generation/age-focussed communities, evolutionary/constructed group, community hub/etc. Forgebank, Lancaster

17. Evidence: ESRC Collaborative Housing and Community Resilience Seminar Programme Programme 2014-16 • Overview: Challenging the public-private binary and who gets to build– what, where and how. • Beyond speculation: de-commoditising property in collaborative housing • Breaking out of the brick box: interrogating the socio-spatial form of cohousing. • Collaborative housing, mutual support and specialist care. • Sharing in the future: how collaboration influences ecological behaviour Forthcoming June 2016 • Mainstreaming cohousing in urban development: barriers to knowledge transfer UKCN with LSE and Universities of Lancaster, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield drawing on European & North American experience http://collaborativehousing.net/ K1 Cambridge

18. Research focus on desired attributes of housing and care in a sharing economy “A sense of a supportive community does not automatically grow on its own, spontaneously, just because you concentrate people in buildings.” Maria Brenton, Board Member UKCN & Care and Repair England • Neighbourliness and Community • Autonomy • Adaptivity • Creativity • Principles of ‘relational goods’ • Co-design and co-production of services

19. Action Research Partners Challenge from Big Lottery ‘Accelerating Ideas’, UKCN’s Core Funder and UKCN Members… • Snowball programme of assembling projects and partners - open to offers! • National professional support network - Architects, urban designers, surveyors, project managers, financial advisers, health and community development workers etc. to work with new and existing groups wanting to design their own housing and care solutions • Enabling Developers – housebuilders, housing associations and contractors interested in developing new products and services, and ‘lending’ access to land and development finance • Local authorities and NHS commissioners - looking for new social investment approaches to housing and care • Action Learning , good/new practice development and dissemination - through HLIN and ESRC-backed Universities

20. Islington Park Street Group HomeAutonomous co-production – all by themselves • One of London's oldest communes • The vision of Franciscan Monk Greg Moore, who founded IPS Community in 1976, as a refuge for the vulnerable and low-paid • Eighteen housemates, aged 19 to 80, share four terraced houses • Resources and responsibilities are also shared, each paying £30 a week for food and bills

21. Co-producing housing, care and mutual support • Places are allocated according to need on policy developed over 40 years – validated by Council • Maintains a balance of age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and support needs • Accommodates people that need care (1/3rd) and others that can provide it (2/3rd). • NOFRIENDS!

22. Balancing private and shared space • Private bedrooms… everything else shared • Guest bedrooms, and spaces to hire out to local groups • Centre of the home is a large kitchen, dining, living room • Smaller kitchen for people who need more privacy • Work and music room “People receive what they need, and give what they can”Karen, a care worker who has spent five years at the home.

23. Self-regulating and self-supporting community "This is a place to have a sense of safety and support," says Karen. "People here have experienced the opposite." • The community includes a victim of domestic abuse, an ex-prisoner, people suffering with Parkinson’s, dementia and mental illnesses, or recovering from drug and alcohol problems. • Many have struggled to access social services • No Supported Housing money

24. Autonomy…key to success and good outcomes Health & social benefits • Loneliness and social interactions • Physical and mental health support • Healthy affordable meals and warmth Economic benefits • Sharing resources reduces the cost of living. Environmental benefits • Sharing resources reduces consumption • Green policies, purchasing and lifestyles How do we want to live ?

25. Islington Park Street Community, established in 1976, provides a model that could help those facing mental or physical challenges to sustain healthy independent living via mutual support. ‘We are a blank canvas defined by constant evolution and change, constant giving and taking.’ IPS resident Islington Park Street Community: a model for alternative housing in London Dr. Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia, Associate Professorial Research Fellow, LSE London, September 2015 https://islingtonparkstreet.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/islington-park-street-report1.pdf ‘We provide low-income, single adults with a supportive permanent home. We also remain committed to the ethos of community living.’ IPS website