Page 11 - C.A.L.L. #34 - Winter 2011/2012

Why housing associations shouldn't be afraid of cohousing by Anita Pati

The Guardian (UK)

While blooming in Denmark, Holland and the US, the concept of cohousing still
stutters in the UK. Visions of communes and hippies abound while local authorities
and housing associations, struggling to grasp cohousing philosophy, withhold vital
financial support.
Put simply, cohousing is a way of life where a community chooses to live together as a
mutually supportive group, running its own activities while retaining independence in
separate units of accommodation. Often, cohousing takes the form of apartments
within a block with communal facilities and can be particularly suitable for sprightly
older people spurning more institutional
accommodation.
Cohousing communities are springing up
around the country, most in developing
stages looking for land to buy. According

to the UK Cohousing Group, a support and
information network, there are 40-80
developing co-housing groups, eight of
which are established communities.

The Older Women's Housing Group, part of One such association, Hanover, has
Hanover's cohousing scheme decided to champion cohousing and adopt
its principles for its own older people's accommodation.
Hanover, which manages nearly 19,000 mixed tenure retirement and extra care
properties, is supervising three co-housing projects across the country, either as a

developer or both developer and manager.
"We think cohousing offers a lot of potential in terms of older people's housing for
the future," says chief executive Bruce Moore. "We've got a big appetite for it
because it fits with the idea of devolved choice and people taking more responsibility.
Housing associations are provider-dominated and decide what [older people] should
do and I think, in older people's housing, it builds in institutionalisation."
Moore says that giving older people power over their living arrangements fits into the
localism and "big society" agendas. "Hanover is saying that each of our 600
retirement sites across the country should be its own community with decisions
based locally. Every location will have much more autonomy – a devolved business
model is what we're looking at adopting," he says.
Hanover started working with Owch, a group of 20 women between the ages of 55
and 80, in December 2009. The all-female Owch will be the first senior co-housing

community in the UK.
The Owch development will have 24 one and two-bedroom flats split between a third
private sale, a third shared ownership and a third affordable rent. It will have
communal rooms and a garden and the flats will be aged-adapted and low energy. The
women are now getting to know each other before signing the contracts and moving in
as a ready-formed community.