Co-housing

More than a friendly cul de sac

Benefits

• For RSLs• For the wider community• For the individual residents• For Society

Benefits to RSLs

1. Sustainable Housing2. High quality homes and environments3. Inclusive communities

Sustainable housing

• More opportunity for features which depend on more than one home

• More opportunity to actively engage residents with sustainability issues

• More opportunity for mutual support in achieving sustainability

Inter generational mass Sustainable transport

High quality homes and environments

• Personal space is more often collective space• Crime is not an issue• Resident input into design, development and

maintenance of the environment• Sufficient weight of numbers to have things

which might not otherwise be possible

The Veg garden – collective and individual effort

Inclusive communities

• A focal point for energy and activity – internally and externally (culture, sport, “active citizenship”)

• Exposure of young people to wide range of adults (and vice versa); associated opportunities, support and informal supervision

• Attract additional resources• Create economic activity

CP FM.

Culture, skills, access to resources

Benefits to the wider community

• Energy spills over• Wider community can take part in locally

organised activities• Wider community benefits from

empowerment and access to resources• And wider community/society share the

benefits of the individual

Laughton has the only youth parish council in the county

Benefits to the individual

• Children are seen to be more articulate and more confident

• Skill sharing• “Stuff” sharing• Support in the day to day and in the big things• Economic opportunities• Support in accessing new opportunities – a

“learning community”

Sharing skills and “stuff” and mutual support

Benefits to society

• There are good reasons for putting relationships at the core of effective public provision. Relationships are at the heart of what makes for a good life. Much of what we most value - love, friendship, trust, recognition, care - comes from relationships with family, friends and social networks. People grow up well and age well if they have supportive relationships. (Guardian 1 July)

“Radical public services innovation will only come from a markedly different starting point. The key will be to redesign services to enable more mutual self-help, so that people can create and sustain their own solutions. Enabling people to come together to find their own, local solutions should become one of the main goals of public services. Services do a better job when they leave behind stronger, supportive relationships for people to draw on and so not need a service.” (Guardian 1 July 2009)

There are good reasons for putting relationships at the core of effective public provision.

The key to getting people to change their behaviour - perhaps to stop smoking, take up walking, or start recycling their waste - is whether they know and respect other people who do the same thing.(Guardian 1 July 2009)

Critical mass is important for changing behaviours

In Britain's largely service economy, earning a living turns on social skills, being able to understand and respond to a client's need. Innovation comes from our capacity to collaborate creatively. In an innovation-driven, service economy, basic social skills - how to listen, understand and work together - are as important as reading, writing and arithmetic

Listening and collaborating are key 21st century skills

Conclusions

• Benefits of co-housing to all stakeholders can be summed up as the building of social capital

• Creating sustaining networks of relationships benefits all age groups and stages of life

• Social capital has benefits in terms of economics, care, education, culture, civic life

• The networks created by co-housing spill over into the wider community

• The intentionality of co-housing is key – its not a random or lucky effect!

People grow up well and age well if they have supportive relationships

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