Watercolor

You need a deposit, members, some rules, some meat and a financial plan, but no clothes. Then you can get a mortgage and buy a house. The mortgage is paid by income from the rents. There are other types of housing co-op that let the members buy or sell their share at market value or at a fixed rate, for those who fancy that and have the available cash. This can help with the expectation some folk have that your house should be getting more expensive and making money for you while you sit on your arse and do nowt. Below are some resources to help you crawl out of the situation you may be in, where you’re paying a large rent to fund someone else’s skiing holiday. www.radicalroutes.org.uk - a network of radical co-ops with good info on setting up a co-op. www.squatter.org.uk - practical advice for squatters and homeless people, including a legal section 6 notice to print. www.facebook.com/pages/Branches-Housing-Co- operative/75569787279 - Branches Housing Co-op The Hive Housing Co-op: 16 Spring Gardens, Manningham, BD1 3EJ. Sam Lawrence

Take a walk out of Bradford, along Manningham Lane, past Connaught House and the two sleepy lions. Just after the takeaway with the “Police line do not cross - contains addictive burgers” tape in the window, there is an unadopted setted street leading downhill. Halfway down, opposite a thriving school, there’s a house full of people who have an unorthodox relationship with their landlord - they can see him or her in the mirror. In fact, in most of the ways that matter, these skint young types own their own house - after a one-off payment of £1 and a rent of £45/week including bills. This house is a housing co-operative. Staggeringly, worldwide the co-operative movement has about a billion members, three times as many people as own shares. Obviously it can work very well in a variety of countries and situations. Forming or joining a housing co-op is an excellent way to take control of your own housing without being answerable to a dodgy landlord/lady. You can literally DIY without asking - paint your room, put some shelves up, re-plumb the kitchen. With the agreement of your fellow members you can tackle large projects like installing solar hot water, or wood burning central heating, or carving a large statue of Ronaldo in the garden. Your usual landlord/lady probably ain’t gonna let you do that. Rent is cheap and set by the members, and you can plant fruit bushes in the front garden and apples in the back, and make jam and pie. The most frequent question you are likely to be asked if you live in such a place, is “what’s the catch?” followed by “yeah, but there must be a catch”. There is no catch. Of course there are all the stresses of living with others, but no different to any shared house. There is a certain amount of work that needs to be shared out - keeping on top of the financial tasks, sharing out maintenance, going to meetings of the co-operative network - can be fun actually, honest - attending house meetings. All this can give a lot of satisfaction - at least some of the time. There are two housing co-ops operating in Bradford, Branches and the Hive. Branches are in the process of buying a house, while the Hive has owned a house for well over a decade. Both these housing co-ops are members of Radical Routes - an association of radical co-ops - which means that members should be committed to radical social change, and shouldn’t keep pigs in the back garden to sell for bacon. Eating ham in your own room is fine in the Hive, in Branches you get brutally lynched by the vegan police. There are lots of UK housing co-ops that impose no (or different) restrictions on their members - why not set up a meaty nudist co-op in Bradford?

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