Community-Led Housing and the Community-Led Housing and the Role of Housing AssociationsRole of Housing Associations

A HACT Learning Event A HACT Learning Event

Sally ThomasHead of Community Investment May 2014

North Star Housing GroupNorth Star Housing Group

• Parent company for Endeavour Housing Association and Teesdale Housing Association

• 3,200 homes in urban Teesside and rural Teesdale

• 630 supported housing units for a wide range of needs

• A two-year programme of organisational development and cultural consolidation

• Distributed leadership, being local, co-creation

• Strong Community Investment activity and ethos

• Think big, act small, start now ……

Strengthening communitiesStrengthening communities

• Traditional community relationships focus on needs and problems; can reinforce a dependency culture

• Need to focus on community strengths: the capacities, skills, intelligence and expertise of people living in neighbourhoods

• A relationship-driven, rather than transaction-driven, approach

Community-Led Housing ProjectsCommunity-Led Housing Projects

• Housing Co-ops

Langridge and Norton Grange – 92 units - development and management / repairs

• Community-based housing

Darlington HA, 4 Quaker Societies / charitable trusts – 265 units – management / repairs

• Community-owned housing

Middlesbrough CLT – 5 units - management / repairs

• Empty Homes Programme

Five Lamps – 4 units - management / repairs

ElementsElements• Agreements and contracts – tailored templates

• Funding – sew and grow, earned income

• Services – enabling, development, management, maintenance

• Locking in community interest – asset development

• Relationships – long-term

Gresham, Middlesborough Gresham, Middlesborough

Study the past if you would Study the past if you would define the futuredefine the future

• Post-industrial decline

• Housing Market Renewal

• Controversy and confrontation

• Strong social networks / value base

It takes a community to make a It takes a community to make a community……community……

• From Communities Under Threat to

Community Land Trust

• Asset transfer of three houses for £3

• Local lettings at affordable rent

• Added values – social and economic• voluntary effort / sweat equity

• community construction team

• local spend / community-led regeneration

Alone we can do so little; together we Alone we can do so little; together we can do so muchcan do so much

• The residents of Gresham

• North Star Housing Group

• Middlesbrough Council

• Community Campus

• HCA, HACT, Isos, Jon Fitzmaurice

To lead the people; walk behind themTo lead the people; walk behind them

• Community leadership

• Relationships not transactions

• The collective economy / the social

community

• Letting go and giving up; small is beautiful

• Next steps: more EHs, new-build, Neighbourhood Planning,

Social Enterprises in Lettings and Repairs / Voids)

Successes and barriersSuccesses and barriers

• Shared purpose and ethos – mutual benefits

• Making unequal partnerships work; working with difference

• A geographical / neighbourhood / practical focus

• Community-led delivery model; a focus on assets

• Money – diverse and flexible, income streams

• Developing whole organisational understanding

• Institutional barriers