Welcome to UK Cohousing

Experts from Spain, Japan and England will provide fresh perspectives on the scope and benefits of community engagement with empty homes to promote regeneration, renewal, skills and training outcomes, new housing supply and sustainable community organisations. Eva Morales will discuss her PhD findings on urban vacancy as an opportunity in Spain, Yoshinobu Kikuchi will discuss the experience of engaging with long term population decline and property abandonment in Japan while Caroline Gore-Booth will reflect on the success of Giroscope from Hull in the World Habitat Awards 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NFiOWFbC6Yand her recent study visit to US and Canada.

Experts from Spain, Japan and England will provide fresh perspectives on the scope and benefits of community engagement with empty homes to promote regeneration, renewal, skills and training outcomes, new housing supply and sustainable community organisations. Eva Morales will discuss her PhD findings on urban vacancy as an opportunity in Spain, Yoshinobu Kikuchi will discuss the experience of engaging with long term population decline and property abandonment in Japan while Caroline Gore-Booth will reflect on the success of Giroscope from Hull in the World Habitat Awards 2016 and her recent study visit to US and Canada.

Following presentations from our three international speakers, there will be a panel discussion chaired by Jon Fitzmaurice, the leading activist in this field in England. We hope that the discussion will inspire renewed action in Birmingham where the Council is consulting on ‘Empty Homes Strategy 2019-24’ and where Birmingham Community Homes https://www.birminghamcommunityhomes.com/ is promoting community-led housing in the city.

If you would like to attend, please contact Helen Harris at h.m.a.harris@bham.ac.uk

More details can be found here.

Free event for all those interested in taking action on empty homes.

Action on Empty Homes will launch the final report from our 3-year study of community- based approaches to bringing empty homes into use. You can hear from national speakers and from the community-based projects we followed, who show that many types of communities can work in partnership with others to bring empty homes into use, to provide training and support for local people and to deliver secure affordable homes for people to live in. For more information visit their website.

To book your place please email Brighid Carey: brighid.carey@emptyhomes.com

We’re holding a one day event on cohousing on Saturday May 4th at the Birchcliffe Centre, Hebden Bridge.

Sign up here before 27th April to guarantee your place and food!

We’ll..
– provide useful information about cohousing, including financial models and governance.
– tackle some thorny issues – dealing with conflict, leadership, power distribution and financial security.
– get to know each other – talk about our needs and expectations, do a bit of a skills audit, discuss how we’d like to communicate as we go on.
– do some dreaming – look at some local properties and some existing cohousing groups and their models.
– see if we have the beginnings of a cohousing group or groups.

We’ll mix things up, work in small groups, and use different methods – visual, written, spoken and making.

It’ll be facilitated by Jackie Carpenter. Jackie has lived in cohousing in Cornwall for twelve years and has just become a director of the UK Cohousing Network, to offer help and advice to aspiring cohousing groups.

We won’t get too deeply into spreadsheets or legal texts but instead look at the issues through stories of others’ experiences. Jackie is happy to correspond via email afterwards for people seeking more detailed information.

This meeting follows on from a first one we held on 24th March. If you weren’t there and want to see what we discussed, I’ll put the notes on our facebook group, or contact me if you’d like them emailed to you.

What you need to know:
– Saturday May 4th, arrive from 9.30am for tea, coffee, with a start of meeting proper at 10am
– A vegetarian/vegan lunch will be provided.
– There will be plenty of breaks with drinks available.
– We’ll finish the meeting at 5pm but there will be opportunity to go to the pub to continue talking.
– £5 cost per person to help cover venue, lunch and drinks.
– The venue is a 10 minute walk uphill from Hebden town centre. There is a bus that drops off outside the Birchcliffe Centre, or there is plenty of parking.
– The parking and venue have good disabled access.
– The meeting will be in the main hall and the entrance is at the back of the building, off the car park.

Full address: The Birchcliffe Centre, Birchcliffe Road, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8DG

So, what do I need from you at this stage?

Please sign up at this eventbrite page before April 27th
If you like facebook, please join this facebook group.
Please invite others.