John Baldwin, Managing Director of Co-op Homes, is often asked, “Why co-ops?” In his latest blog, he explains why co-operative housing matters — empowering residents with real control and offering a powerful alternative to mainstream housing.
When I say I work with housing co-ops, I am often asked ‘why co-ops?’ Usually from people who work in Housing but also just generally. They are a hidden tenure and people often don’t get what we do at Co-op Homes or why we do it.
My simple answer to the question ‘why co-ops?’ would be – ‘because they matter’. They matter to the people who live in these communities, they matter as there are lessons we can all take away from the co-operative housing model and they matter because we need alternatives to mainstream housing markets (home ownership, private rent and social housing).
Rarely have I come across groups of residents who are more invested in their communities than they are in housing co-ops. They are proud of their legacy and always ready to fight for what they believe in. Making an active choice to live in a co-op is a commitment in itself.
Having control over your housing without actually owning it creates an entirely different dynamic. Choosing your repairs contractor, deciding who gets offered a tenancy and setting your own rent are decisions most social housing tenants can only dream of. The responsibilities of these decisions and managing them fairly when there is a built in conflict of interest is all part of the richness of the model, but in the end, it is the residents of the co-op who have to live with their decisions.
This raises wider questions for all of us about what does ‘community’ mean and how local democracy works. I’ve started to use the term ‘hyper-local’ to describe how your neighbours and what’s outside your front door impacts the most and how services need to be understood at this level first. Many of our co-ops have around 30-40 properties and what works for them might not work for the co-op down the road. Moving beyond this scale, you quickly see how the idea of control becomes more abstract.
There are also insights into how support networks are manifested; co-ops provide a great example of how isolation can be avoided and how groups of people can share skills and experience for the greater good. All without the need for state intervention.
There is so much to learn, and I am still learning daily from our partner co-ops. So for me that’s ‘why co-ops'.
