Supporting Community Led Housing

A2 Building Support within the Local

Community

COMMUNITY LED

HOUSING TRAINING

Building support within the local

community

Understanding the “people” requirements to achieve the

community-led housing vision

Considering broadly what needs to be done to satisfy them

a) group recruitment

b) group development

c) building grass roots support

d) building relationships with partners

Who are/might be the people?

a) what “people” (or organisations) might be needed to

make a community-led housing scheme happen?

b) attach two adjectives to each group identified that

describes skills or attributes that will be needed in order to

achieve a community led housing scheme

Who are/might be the people?

a) community leaders

Resourceful, inclusive, open minded, energetic,

committed, with time available, adaptable, resilient

b) founder members

Informed, supportive

c) subsequent members

Who are/might be the people?

a) local authority and other local politicians – supportive,

championing

b) local authority officers – enabling, continuity, buy in

c) partner developer (housing association, private) –

empowering, resourceful

d) project managers – client centred, adaptable

e) consultants/contractors/architects/legal/

accountants – competent, customer focussed

f) landowners, investors, supporters – flexible, interested,

available

g) media – interested, supportive

The founder members

What are the important issues about recruiting founder

members:

• in any community-led housing scheme?

• in a grass roots scheme?

• in an existing organisation scheme?

• in a developer led scheme?

Important founder member issues

– in any community-led housing scheme

• potential scheme tenure/type

• income and equity levels needed

• restrictions on who can be housed and/or who can

be a member

• equality and diversity considerations

• building community capacity

Important founder member issues -

in a grass roots scheme

• which members will be housed? Which will be

supporters?

• can an intended scheme house all of the group’s

intended resident members? The OWCH example

• is anyone bringing in equity? Is anyone on the local

authority register?

• are the group’s ambitions realistic?

• does the group understand the skills requirements and

time commitments?

• is it likely that the group will be able to build the

partnerships it needs?

• are there diversity issues?

Important founder member

issues - in existing organisation scheme

• is the scheme seeding a new organisation or adding

to its own assets?

• what are the tenure of the homes? What groups will

be housed? What income levels?

• who are the existing or future members?

• where will scheme residents come from?

• how will residents be empowered and their capacity

developed?

Important founder member

issues - in a developer led scheme

• what are the tenure of the homes? What groups will be

housed? Income levels?

• where will founder members come from?

• how will “first contact” be dealt with?

• how will the founder members be empowered and their

capacity developed?

Where do we find resident members?

• Word of mouth local connections

• Local authority and other registers

• The wrong end of the waiting list

• Self build registers

• Community, works, schools, hospitals, faith organisations

• Local media

• Social media

• Open days/events

Market based approaches

• ensuring costs are competitive

• equity, charges, repairs and other costs

• comparison to other local offers?

• Right Move etc.

• is the product is what people want?

• selling the community led aspect!

• is the area right?

• getting it across to people

Local authority nominations

• community led housing and local authority nominations

• need for LA agreement if public grant for local income

rental homes (ie. Community Housing Fund) is used

• it is possible to negotiate with local authorities

• nomination methods and local lettings

• particularly regarding founder members

• pre-allocations will mean those in urgent need cannot

be nominated initially

Group development – what needs to

happen at the start?

• Visioning

• Skills audit

• Programme building

• Governance principles

• Code of conduct

• Managing conflicting views

• Equality, diversity & fairness

• Structures, roles and responsibilities

• Reflecting on and assessing progress

• Membership and community activity

• Scheme related sessions

Group development

Initial stages

• in a grass roots group – a few sessions after which the

group will probably develop its capacity through scheme

activity. However, the group will need to have

knowledge of governance and management.

• in an existing organisation – may not be a need for

group development, but if there is it would be similar to

…

• in a developer led scheme – a long term programme

during development to build the capacity of the group

Visioning

• who are the stakeholders at the outset?

• understanding the aspirations of each group member

• what outcomes do people want?

• what is possible?

• visiting other schemes – but not trying to replicate them!

• sketching out a route forward

Skills audit and programme development

• skills needed dependent on the scheme

• the ten red herrings exercise - leading to a group

developed programme that covers:

• opening basic governance sessions

• legal structures and agreements

• the development programme

• housing management functions

• financial management and business planning

Programme development

Resourcing the programme

• Community Housing Fund

• plus other grant funding (Agile and others?)

• Hubs?

• some training may be provided through existing

organisation or developer partner – in which case the

support role is ensuring they have the guidance they

need

• some may be capitalised

Group development

Conflict and conduct

• conflict is going to happen –

forming/storming/norming/performing

• diverse views are good – managing conflict is necessary

• written structures, policies and procedures are part of a

democracy – they protect the less confident

• developing a code of conduct with the group at an

early stage

Group development

Equality, diversity and fairness

Assumption in the community led housing world about

equality and diversity?

• the end of the world exercise

• examples of discrimination exercise

• discriminatory statements exercise

• scenarios exercise

The end of the world is nigh – the polar ice-caps are melting and the

earth will suffer a catastrophic flood. You are members of a think tank

set up Government. You must decide from the following who will be

allowed to survive the flood – only 15 can. Justify why you would not

take the remaining 9.

• Policeman

• Pensioner

• Shop steward

• Magistrate

• Bank manager

• School teacher

• Jew

• Black teenager

• Black woman

• White man

• University student

• Vicar

• Mother

• Communist

• Old lady

• Youth club leader

• Military officer

• Arab

• Rastafarian

• Capitalist

• Member of Parliament

• Doctor

• Unemployed woman

• Militant atheists should accept that Britain is a Christian

country and get over it. Non-believers should not be

able to impose politically correct intolerance on others.

• Britain's recent storms and floods are divine retribution

for the government's decision to legalise gay marriage

• Women with children are worth less than men in the

financial sector. They are responsible for their own

reduction in pay if they have children because they

take maternity leave and become less valuable to their

businesses.

• Equality is about treating everyone the same and

making everyone equal.

What could the CLH organisation do in the following scenarios?

• for religious reasons, a female member is not able to attend

meetings where men are in attendance. But she would like to

participate in some way.

• a member has complained that the CLH organisation is not

involving him in the same way that other members are

involved because he is gay.

• the organisation has received reports that a member may be

suffering domestic abuse from their partner (also a member).

• a member (in a CLH organisation in Wales) has asked for

copies of all the policies in Welsh and to be communicated

with in Welsh.

Group development

Equality, diversity and fairness

• treating people fairly – basic human rights

• the elimination of discrimination

• recognising and valuing differences - a diversity of needs,

skills, ways of living

• tackling exclusion by removing barriers to services,

resources, information, education and employment

Equality diversity and fairness

Protected characteristics?

• Age

• Disability

• Gender reassignment

• Marriage and civil partnership

• Pregnancy and maternity

• Race

• Religion or belief

• Sex

• Sexual orientation

Equality diversity and fairness

Other characteristics?

• Domestic violence and abuse

• Unrelated or spent criminal convictions

• Responsibility for dependents

• Being HIV positive

• Economic circumstances

• Appearance

• Political or trade union affiliation

• Cycling

Group development

Committee roles

• Chair, Secretary, Treasurer

• function related roles

• other governing body members

• other members

• need for descriptions of roles

• scheme of delegation

• reflecting on/assessing progress

Group development

Basic competences?

• Getting the basic idea

• People getting on with each other

• Some people taking responsibility

• Support for the organisation

• Support for equality, diversity and fairness

• Able to plan and review programme

• Running effective meetings

• Controlling finances/budgets

• Developing policy

• Making relationships with partners

• Negotiation skills

• Business planning

• Communications skills

Group development

Examples – specific competences?

• procuring/managing contracts

• developing homes

• housing management services

• repairs services

• employing/managing staff

Building grass roots support

Reasons needed?

• credibility/legitimacy/momentum

• integrate into community

• building support for a rural scheme where otherwise

there might be opposition

• persuading landowner to sell land at sub market rates

• developing a scheme in existing homes (e.g. tenant

management organisation)

• bringing in founder members/residents

• demonstrating support to decision-makers

• assets/loanstock/community shares

Building grass roots support

Methods?

• word of mouth - face to face contact

• doorknocking - places where people meet

• surveys, public meetings, events

• social media, local press

• voluntary and community sector

• seeking local high profile support

• formal ballots

• building on an opposition campaign?

• clarity of vision, values, mission, demonstrating

competence, managing expectations

• clear ways for people to get involved

• understanding the market

Getting the support of local authorities

• “Community-led housing: a key role for local authorities”

• Talk to them – at different levels – planning, housing and other officers; engage with councillors

• Engage with neighbourhood plan and other local initiatives – local voluntary and community sector

• Become part of the housing framework – local authority forums/groups; LEPs; development groups etc

• Adopt a local authority by local authority approach –adapting your messages to fit their approaches

• Understand their strategies and deliver what they want

• If all else fails – adopt a campaign approach, but at some point need to move from being a lobbyist to being part of the solution

What motivates local authorities?

Community-led housing: a key role for local authorities CCIN

• Politicians/officers

• Housing targets, housing needs, waiting lists, those they have a duty to house

• Self build register

• Development at scale

• Voluntary and community sector

• Sectoral partnerships

• Smaller and contentious sites

• Not losing land

• Social value – best consideration

• Additional investment – CHF

• Municipal envy

• Low risk to the local authority

What motivates housing

associations?

• Board members – staff - CEO

• Cathy Come Home – social values – community links

• Cost, risk and complexity

• Change and innovation?

• The Regulatory Framework & charitable status

• Public relations

• Supporting Government agendas

• Best practice – what are others doing?

• Community Housing Fund?

What motivates private developers?

• Corporate Social Responsibility

• Section 106s

• Something that gives them opportunities elsewhere

• Something that gives them links to local authorities

• A ready market

• Products that will work in the market

Building partnerships

• is just one choice available?

• could there be procurement?

• will there be more interest from housing associations?

Balance – building partnerships

• Community perspective – vision, imagination and

community energy – but practical reality?

• Local authority perspective – often quite supportive but

major housing challenges and limited resources

• Housing association perspective – again some support in

the sector – but questions about is this going to interfere

with what we are doing? Is this greater risk?

• Private developers – sometimes quite supportive – but

not used to working with community groups

• How to marry all this up?