At the community meeting on 3rd March, Fabien & Gordon held an Open Space group on Community Owned Housing. Here is our short presentation:
We want to talk about how we can create housing in a way that is aligned with our spiritual values of oneness and of brotherhood/sisterhood.
We want to show that there are alternatives to the mainstream system of private ownership with it's tendency to create speculation.
We would like us, as a community, to launch a major inspirational project to demonstrate economic and social systems that create housing as a community resource. This is a time when the world is crying out for someone to demonstrate how we share our resources and share our wealth in a fair and harmonious way.
Our passion is to create a community land trust whereby the community owns the land, and a community housing cooperative whereby the community owns its own housing.
Below are our ideas and suggestions. Click here to download as a doc file: Attach:comhousing.doc
A Community Housing Cooperative - by Gordon McAlpine
What can we learn from the Field of Dreams?
Individual, private ownership =>
When a house is resold, all profit (often large) goes to the owner
House and land prices have been rising disproportionately in the western world. Over the last 20 years, residential land prices in the UK have increased by 800%! Housing prices have increased by 306%. (To put this into perspective, the best comparison I can find is that over the last 15 years, consumer prices rose by 45%, wages by 89%.)
The current system of private ownership results in the consolidation of wealth: Those who already have large amounts of money gain more; those who have little or none stay that way. Thus, the divide between rich & poor is increased. Young couples and families, or people living an alternative lifestyle, can't get on the housing ladder, because the first step is too high, because these price increases are in the interest of all those who already have.
Underlying philosophy: we are all separate; nobody cares for anybody else; we have to compete; we have to focus on material wealth above all else. If you don't go along with this philosophy, you get left behind.
The problem is not the people involved, but the economic system that we are all trapped in.
The inspiration of Ladak
Helena Norberg Hodge's study of a holistic, sustainable culture.
How do they deal with housing needs? When a young couple get married, if there is no vacant house available, then the whole village gets together and builds them a house.
Community ownership
Underlying philosophy: unity; we are all one; we are all interconnected, the needs of our brothers & sisters are the concern of all of us. Everybody needs a comfortable place to stay – this is a universal human need. So let us, as a community, take responsibility for creating housing as a community resource!
Housing cooperatives
- Grew out of the labour movement – what we now call the social justice movement.
- The land and the housing is collectively owned, by the Housing Coop, which is a sustainable resource for the benefit of the whole community: also future generations.
- Residents = members = stakeholders
- The whole community contributes to creating and sustaining the community resource (The Housing Coop).
- Every member has equal rights. Decisions taken democratically (e.g. using Dynamic Self Governance (Sociocracy)).
- Each adult member pays for a stake in order to join, e.g. £10,000. (The amount of the stake could also be proportional to the size of the unit they wish to live in.) This is a way of ensuring personal commitment, as well as of raising some basic funds.
- Each member pays a monthly rent in proportion to how much it cost to build the unit they live in. (Some units can be very minimalistic to increase affordability.)
- Individual members who have additional funds are encouraged to lend this capital to the Housing Coop at a reasonable rate of interest (e.g. the lowest mortgage rate available in the open market).
- When a member leaves the Coop, they get their stake back plus some interest. The rate of interest is decided once a year by the members. It could typically be the same interest rate as above (lowest mortgage rate). The rate of interest is based on the intention of providing a sustainable, affordable housing resource. It is not based on cashing in on possible rapid price increases in the open housing market.
- The additional capital required to finance the purchase of the land and building of the house is raised from loans at a low rate of interest, i.e. the lowest mortgage rate available or less. We imagine that many members of our global network of supporters of the community will lend us money on these terms, e.g. through Ekopia, as will other local community members who wish to support the project.
- Land owned in perpetuity by a Community Land Trust – guarantees no individual can gain from future land sales. Land would be bought from Duneland and the Foundation at less than market value to increase affordability.
- This project is a major demonstration of alternative economic and social solutions based on the spiritual values and practices of this community. An inspiring manifestation of the economic & social pillars of the eco-village movement that we teach about. We trust that this inspirational aspect will attract suitable loans.
- This approach is a long-term solution – because the cost to the residents do not follow increases in the open housing market. Over the years it will become more & more affordable in relative terms, as the price of privately owned houses continues to increase.
- It is important to create one Housing Cooperative with one set of ground rules and agreements. We need to fund-raise for one idea / one project that the whole community is behind. But this large cooperative can evolve as a series of clusters, which take their own decisions about specifics.
- Co-housing: each cluster has a mixture of private spaces (e.g. bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, living rooms) and shared spaces (e.g. laundry, bike shed, sauna, party room, TV/DVD room, guest rooms). The architecture of the each cluster is designed to give a sense of cohesion, harmony and aesthetics.
- Distributed gate-keeping: new members are accepted/rejected by a process of attunement based on alignment with the values & practices of our community and their actual need.
How is this different from other ideas
Instead of dividing the land into a private bit and a rented bit, it unites the haves and the have nots in community.
I envision the majority of our future housing (built on the Magic Triangle & Foundation land) as being part of such a housing cooperative. I also envision selling a few houses into private ownership to create some profit, as well as the creation of a small housing association that provides very cheap housing, but without any gate-keeping.