Bevendean History Project
Hedgehog Housing Cooperative - The Hogs Edge Project
Hedgehog Housing Co-opThe Hedgehog Housing Co-op was started in 1993 by three people who had seen Digger's at Hollingbury, and wanted this type of good quality, affordable housing for their families. We were complete novices at the "housing game" so talked to two local Housing Associations, SLFHA (South London Family Housing Association) (who had overseen Diggers) and CDHA (Chichester Diocesan Housing Association) (who had overseen See-Saw at Wilson Avenue, Brighton).
They explained that the simplest way for us to fund the scheme would be through a HAG (Housing Association Grant) from the Housing Corporation, which would cover about 50% of the scheme costs, and would be administered by the Housing Association, who would raise the other 50%, which would be repaid through our rents. A visit to the planning office showed us that there was a small plot of land on a south facing hill in Bevendean available for social housing (housing for people in need), marked on the Borough Plan as HP1. This meant that the planners would probably only allowing social housing to be built on it.
Who receives HAG is decided by the local housing department, as they advise the Housing Corporation which of the plans are likely to fulfil pressing housing need. We took advice from both Housing Associations originally, until CDHA (Chichester Diocesan Housing Association) lost their co-ops officer, and from then on, we worked exclusively with SLFHA (South London Family Housing Association).
They are interested in promoting co-ops, and our Development Worker there was Jose Ospina, who wrote the “Self Build for Rent” booklet, which is worth reading, because it explains where and how self build for rent works financially, and where the "premium" comes from and so on.
The architect who had designed both Diggers and Sea-Saw, Robin Hillier from Architype, came to see the land and took some very rough measurement.
He thought that 13 family houses and 4 semi detached one bedroomed flats could be built there.
With his rough plans, we visited both the planning and housing departments. The planners thought that 17 was too many homes, and then Lynne Standing (Development Officer-Homelessness) suggested that if we were going to have less houses on the site, then the one bedroom units should go, as the most pressing local need was for people in overcrowded housing.
The plans were redrawn, with only ten houses on the site to give the more rural feel that the planners wished to see, in keeping with the density of existing houses.
This fitted in with the type of people who we had thought might want to build their own homes, and would also be acceptable to the council as nominees.
Obviously, somebody who is actually homeless is unlikely to have two years to spend building a house, so by picking people from this pool of people, an overcrowded family is rehoused and then a homeless family can be housed when the self builder moves into their new home.
We agreed with the housing department that 70% of our homes would be occupied by nominees. This is an unusually high percentage for a housing co-op, who usually offer about 50%, but we felt that it was important to house people in need, and maximise our chances of getting the HAG funding.
For this funding we weren't competing against other co-ops, but against normal 'new build' Housing Association schemes, like those at Fitch Drive and at Belmont Street. The council usually has 100% nominations to these schemes, so we had to offer something special to be noticed!
We submitted a bid for HAG in 1994, but unfortunately were not successful.
We couldn't just do nothing and put in the same bid the following year, so decided to show everybody what was so special about self build.
This is where the 'housing plus' side of the self build comes in: not only are the houses designed to have minimal visual and environmental impact, but the skills and confidence gained by building your own house will lead to increased self-confidence and even job opportunities.
No self build scheme has had a really good training package before, it has been ad hoc, and the responsibility of the Contract Manager (who is the professional employed by the co-op to ensure that materials arrive on time, that the work is up to standard and so on).
It is the area identified by all the self builders that we have spoken to as being weak. We received funds this year from the European Union to provide help for child care during the build. We have a plan of co-op and building training which looks very impressive.
After confirmation of funding, the members of the co-op (Paul, Jennie, Snezz, Ian and Jo) set out to find other people who wanted to build houses. We also applied for and obtained planning permission on the site. We now have one vacancy left, for a family nominated by the council and look forward to start building on site in August/September this year.
