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People-powered, affordable homes in Yorkshire to help solve housing crisis
People-powered, affordable homes in Yorkshire to help solve housing crisis
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
People-powered, affordable homes in Yorkshire to help solve housing crisis
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
Leeds Community Homes, a collective of seven founding members, including social entrepreneur Paul Chatterton, is trying to solve one of society’s most pressing problems - the housing crisis. There are still two weeks left to support Leeds Community Homes in its community share offer to deliver funding for sixteen affordable homes in Leeds city centre. Announced in October, Leeds Community Homes aims to raise £360,000 by December 19, 2016. The funding, combined with borrowing, will allow them to purchase sixteen properties in the city. The work of Leeds Community Homes comes at a pressing time. Throughout the UK, millions of people, including those of working families, are struggling to meet monthly bills – with housing one of the biggest headaches for too many families. Rising fuel prices, under-employment and the loss of neighbourliness are also proving to be further major challenges for resilient communities. Nine of these flats will be kept as social rental properties. The other seven will be sold on the open market at two-thirds of full market value with a clause ensuring future affordability on re-sale. Buyers would need to show that their household income was insufficient to purchase the flats at full value. Leeds Community Homes formed in 2015 as a community benefit society. It aims to use community-led approaches to create 1,000 affordable homes in Leeds over the next ten years. The good news is that this big ambition fits with Leeds City Council’s own plan to ease housing issues - by committing to build 66,000 new houses by 2028. “We know there are four critical components of a thriving ecosystem of support for social entrepreneurs; Innovation, Infrastructure, Investment and Influence. We can see that Leeds has the potential to be best in class for leading the way of Community Led Housing at a scale rarely seen in the UK.† ~ Louise Cannon, Building Futures Programme Lead, Clore Social Leadership and Winston Churchill Fellow. “These are genuinely exciting times for Community Led Housing, Social Entrepreneurs are seeing tangible opportunities to build resilient communities through housing and the citizen sector is gaining support, delivering impact and challenging the perception that the public aren’t interested in seeing or investing in affordable, quality homes for local people “ ~ Louise The community share offer has a minimum investment of £100, but is match-funded up to £100,000 by Power To Change. This is a chance to make a real difference to people in Leeds and also how we think about housing in 2017 and beyond. See the Leeds Community Homes Share Offer link for more information.