You are here News From Creating Excellence: Power to the People Access to Housing Through Self-Help
Did you know that it's possible for ordinary people to negotiate with owners of empty properties for the use of their buildings? Latest returns show that there are 943,000 empty properties in the UK, with the number rising monthly as the credit crunch continues. People are crying out for housing and community organisations are desperate for affordable premises.
A new website and national initiative www.self-help-housing.org was launched on 8 July. It shows how, with the right knowledge, people working together can legally borrow empty properties from their owners and return them to use.
It involves local people, and communities, bringing back into use properties that are in limbo for one reason or another. Negotiations take place with the owners of empty property for their use, usually for a fixed period on the basis of a lease or licence. Steps are then taken to organise whatever repairs are necessary to make it habitable before people move in. On occasion, plans change and the buildings may eventually become available on a permanent basis.
The New Website features a wide range of resources including:
- how to get organised
- how to get hold of and borrow empty properties from their owners
- where to go for funding
- how to organise any necessary repairs
- how to turn renovating properties into a training opportunity.
It includes case studies and contact details of people who are already doing self help housing and all of the legal documents and guidance a community group might need.
The project is funded by Tudor Trust and has been set up by three partner organisations: Agents For Change - a social agency with extensive experience of empty property & short term housing. Hact - a charitable housing trust working to assist people at the margins of housing, & Social Spider CIC - a not-for-profit design, communications and social action agency.
Apart from creating the first ever dedicated Self-Help Housing website, the project is:
- Working with 2nd tier housing, community and regeneration organisations to roll out the self-help housing proposition to their members and constituents
- Persuading funders to resource self help housing
- Encouraging owners to consider self-help housing projects as an option
Director Jon Fitzmaurice says: "Self help housing is a win-win activity. It's exactly the right time to push it back up the agenda. In recent years it has been in decline. Fewer and fewer people are aware of the possibility of negotiating with owners to take over their empty properties and bring them back into use. This new website shows what can be achieved and gives people who are unable to access mainstream housing, the tools to take on and make use of the increasing number of properties left empty by the impact of the credit crunch. It's revolutionary in that it's the first time that this range of information has been brought together in one place, where anyone can access it".
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