Levent Kerimol

Our coordinator, Laura had the chance to talk with Lorraine Podiephatshwa, a member of Heads2Gether to hear about their plans to build affordable homes for single parents in South London. Lorraine tells us what the inspiration was for the group and how they have worked together to achieve it.

 

Lorraine is on a mission to build affordable homes for single parents in London

Lorraine moved to Croydon in 2006. A hard-working single mother, she has since moved from place to place, experiencing a succession of private and council landlords along the way.

“At one point, I was technically homeless,” she tells us. “I was living in emergency accommodation and I was so frustrated by the living conditions.”

That led her to look for alternative housing options online – and that was where she discovered community led housing.

“As soon as I found it, it caught my attention. The stories were of ordinary people – with no experience, no skills and no money – setting up groups, gaining funding and building homes for themselves.”

Driven by the idea of having a place to call her own and living with like-minded people, Lorraine decided to start her own housing cooperative: Heads2Gether.

 

Heads2Gether gets a head start

Lorraine (pictured below, third from left) explains, “At first, we were a small group of single parents, living and working in Croydon. What brought us together was the idea of creating a safe community for our children, while living in affordable homes.”

The group’s first step was to contact the Community Land Trust Network for advice.

“I remember the first thing I asked them was… ‘is this actually real?’ I thought the whole thing sounded too good to be true. They replied and said, ‘yes, of course it’s real!’”

With a new understanding of community led housing, Lorraine then contacted us at Community Led Housing London.

“The first person I met was Gemma.” Lorraine says. Gemma was a Senior Project Adviser at CLH London until 2021. She advised groups across London on how to organise, as well as how to find a site and finance construction.

Gemma advised Lorraine to get the word out about her idea and find others in her community that wanted to join her.

Meanwhile, the CLH London team started to put together a workshop in order to help Heads2Gether… well, put their heads together.

“I reached out to other women who were living in temporary accommodation,” Lorraine explains. “Many of them, like me, didn’t believe community led housing was real at first! They were saying, ‘where are ordinary people like us going to get all the money we need to build?’”

“All I said was, ‘come along to this meeting and find out what’s possible.’”

 

How CLH London helped start their journey

The first time they attended a workshop, Heads2Gether made a big impression.

Lorraine remembers that session fondly: “The CLH London team were very honest with us and told us everything we needed to know. They took us through all the challenges and complexities and were very open about it taking some time – not least because we would have to educate ourselves along the way.

“Sadly,” Lorraine continues, “some of the people at that first meeting thought it was too much for them and dropped out.”

Luckily for the group, Lorraine herself wasn’t put off by this initial setback. In fact, she tells me she became more motivated than ever and continued to educate herself by reading about community led housing online.

Six months later, when we reached out to Lorraine again, she was much more clued-up than before.

 

The first viewing – and the first challenge

And why were we reaching out? To tell Lorraine that Croydon Council were setting up meetings with community led housing groups to learn more about their projects – and to take them to see potential sites.

“At this meeting, the inspiration and motivation really started to set in,” she tells me.

Soon after, she and other members of Heads2Gether were invited to view several sites. “This was the first time we’d been invited to view sites, and people were starting to feel like the project finally had credibility. They were saying, ‘oh, this is real, this is happening!’”

Finding a site is one of the greatest challenges a community will face. For Heads2Gether, it was important to find land that was spacious enough, with good access to amenities such as schools.

Heads2Gether’s first bid – on a site in Upper Norwood – was unsuccessful, and the land instead went to another team who had also been working with CLH London, Crystal Palace Community Land Trust (CPCLT).

“But we didn’t let it stop us,” says Lorraine. “We decided to take it as a learning experience.”

This Lorraine most certainly did – she tells me she went to shadow meetings at CPCLT, to pick up ideas and inspiration and to learn all the things they did right!

 

Finding a place to call home

Despite the early setback, Lorraine is still confident Heads2Gether will find their perfect site.

I asked her, what’s her secret to staying motivated and keeping the momentum going?

“My motivation is my frustration,” she admits. “I have lived in rented accommodation ever since coming to London, and it’s not what I want for my future.”

“Many members of Heads2Gether also live in rented accommodation. They find it almost impossible to afford,” she says.

“I want to be in control of my own home. I want to be able to decide where I live, and I want to have a community around me to offer mutual support,” she says. “I don’t want to keep living in rented accommodation.”

 

A truly affordable alternative

This, Lorraine says, is why she believes in community led housing. It offers a truly affordable route out of the rental cycle.

When it comes to finding funding for the project, Lorraine says the support and expertise available through Community Led Housing London has been invaluable.

“Up to now, we haven’t spent any of our own money,” Lorraine explains.

“And when we were writing our proposal for the Croydon site, CLH London connected us with architects and helped us with the financial model.”

For Lorraine, for whom rent is already a huge expense, this is one of the greatest benefits of working with CLH London.

 

How Community Led Housing London is giving Heads2Gether knowledge and confidence

“If CLH London wasn’t there, I don’t think we’d be where we are now,” Lorraine tells me.

“From choosing a site, to applying for funding, they’ve helped us and offered all sorts of training. CLH London has always been there to support us.”

I ask Lorraine, what has been the greatest benefit of having CLH London there to guide her on this journey?

“The greatest benefit,” she replies, “is that now we, as a community, feel we can dive into any challenge – we don’t need to be afraid that we won’t know how to do something, because we can always rely on CLH London to guide and support us.”

I ask her what she would recommend to other first-timers and she tells me, without hesitation, “You must have passion, you must know why you want to embark on this journey. If you don’t have a drive, if you don’t have passion, you will be put off by the challenge.”

But, she says, the rewards make the hard work worthwhile. Lorraine has found a great sense of fulfilment from her journey – developing new skills, meeting new people and finding a route to housing that gives her great satisfaction.

“I’m loving it. It’s my opportunity to give back to my community. This is my legacy.”

“I believe once we get our site and start building, this will all have been worth it. Until then, we will keep doing one thing at a time.”

 

Have you got an idea for a community led housing project in London?

To learn more about the kinds of support available, visit our support page, sign up to our mailing list or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @CLHLondon to find out about upcoming events and training.

latest stories and opinion

We had the chance to talk with Hannah, a member of Forest Community Land Trust to hear about their plans to build sustainable homes in Waltham Forest. Discover why she got involved, and how Community Led Housing London helped to motivate and inspire her.

A place to call home?

Hannah loves her home in Walthamstow. As a single mother, Waltham Forest has everything she needs: great schools, beautiful parks and a wonderful social atmosphere.

The only problem is that like many other parts of London, the housing situation is spiralling out of control. Rents have skyrocketed, while new developments are marketed towards high-earning city-slickers. This is pushing local residents out of town.

“It makes my blood boil,” Hannah tells me. “I love this place, but I fear it’s dying. People can’t afford to stay here.”

Housing for the people, by the people

After seeing many of her own friends and neighbours priced out of town, Hannah started to look for alternative options online. That is where she discovered Forest CLT.

Forest CLT has been around since 2018 and was founded by local residents Tanja Pfitzner and Sue Higgins who both dreamt of creating sustainable community housing in Waltham Forest, and have seen members coming together behind this vision.

Hannah explains the land trust is united around “a framework that takes everything from mental health to ecological sustainability into account”.

 

As well as building homes controlled by its members, Forest CLT is committed to working with the community to add public resources such as cafes, yoga spaces and accessible toilets.

“We want to build a community hub,” Hannah tells me, “not just for ourselves, but for everyone who lives in the local area.”

Getting the fire started

Hannah says the trust’s proposed development in Walthamstow will comprise of over 50 properties, to support the community facilities.

“Our dream is to create an affordable, mixed tenure community,” she tells me. “We’ll have social housing for council tenants, affordable rental properties where the rent would be based on people’s earnings, and some properties for sale at reasonable prices.”

The first stage in achieving this dream is to access a suitable site. The Trust has identified several sites and is negotiating with the council to develop these.

They are being supported by Lev, CLH London’s Director. Lev has attended the Trust’s board meetings and discussions, helping to steer conversations and offer advice where it’s been needed. “He has been instrumental in our success,” Hannah tells me, “helping us put together a plan for sites we have our hearts set on, looking at how and what we’d build.”

 

Crucial support from CLH London

“Community Led Housing London has been essential in galvanising us and giving us momentum,” Hannah continues.

Forest CLT have also produced a robust financial model, helping to prove the long-term value and financial sustainability of their project. It became clear that Forest CLT should also consider a pilot scheme in Leyton.

If successful, Forest CLT could use this scheme as a springboard for a much larger project in Walthamstow. The first stage in this process is to bid for land, which they could develop into a small community space with homes.

Hannah can’t tell me too much about the progress of this project just yet, as the Leyton site is yet to be released, but she is confident Forest CLT’s model will prove robust.

 

 

A growing membership

As well as working closely with CLH London, the group has been able to successfully apply for various pots of funding. “The National Community Land Trust Network were offering funding called ‘Cohesive Communities’,” Hannah explains. “I helped to work on that funding application, with some other Forest CLT members, and we won it.”

Forest CLT is using part of this funding to grow its membership, focusing particularly on recruiting members from more diverse backgrounds so that it can be more representative of this part of London.

The group has recently hired a professional to help build connections within the local community. It is also making a short film and redeveloping its website to help spread the message.

“The drive is going well,” Hannah tells me. “We already have around 100 members, but ideally we’d like many more, especially people from more diverse backgrounds who are eager to get involved.”

 

Looking to the future

Hannah hopes the trust can achieve its ambitions, not least “so that we can be an inspiration to others.”

As she puts it: “There’s massive power in people coming together and having a voice. People are very powerful when they join forces. The way housing in London going is not sustainable. There needs to be an alternative.”

For Hannah and many other members of Forest CLT, community led housing not only provides a way to escape London’s unaffordable and unattainable housing cycle, but to take back ownership of their community.

And they’re delighted to have so many resources there to help them – especially the expertise and support available from Community Led Housing London.

“Community Led Housing London has taken us seriously, supported us and encouraged us. They’ve had confidence in us, which has helped us feel confident in ourselves. They’ve played a key role in helping us move forward.”

 

 

Find out more about Forest CLT

Forest CLT’s short film introducing themselves and their ideas:

You can read more about Forest CLT by following their Facebook page. There is also a monthly ‘Meet Forest CLT’ zoom catch up on the first of every month – joining details are on their Facebook page.

 

Have you got an idea for a community led housing project in London?

To learn more about the kinds of support available, visit our support page, sign up to our mailing list or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @CLHLondon to find out about upcoming events and training.

 

Laura, our new coordinator at CLH London, recently caught up with Ameen Lilani of Zahra Housing Co-op to learn about his journey to create purpose-built homes for his community in Harrow.

 

Priced out of his own community

“My story,” Ameen begins, “is the same as millions of people in the UK.”

He tells me that despite working hard and taking part in his community, he has found it impossible to get his foot on the property ladder in London.

“I’ve been evicted several times,” he explains. “Not because I didn’t pay the rent, but usually because the landlord wanted to sell up.”

“The last time I was evicted, my family and I ended up living in a hotel room for a month. It was the worst experience of our lives.”

As a father and husband, Ameen wants nothing more than to escape the renting cycle, to plant roots in London and offer some stability to his family.

But knowing that buying privately or through shared ownership would be almost impossible for him, he decided to look elsewhere. That was when he came across community led housing.

 

An early pioneer

In 2017, Harrow Council and the Mayor of London began to explore innovative ways of helping local people build their own homes.

The initiative went largely unnoticed at the time – some people thought it was too good to be true – but fleet-footed Ameen decided to act right away. He approached Harrow Council to ask for information.

“I went to a few meetings and workshops with them,” he explains, “and got to meet other people who were interested in the idea.” Ameen would go on to start a community organisation with some of these people, which they called Zahra Housing.

Their next step was to secure funding – but in order to do that, they first needed to raise their profile.

 

Zahra Housing Co-op becomes official

Ameen reached out to the Confederation of Cooperative Housing to find out what Zahra needed to do to access funding.

“They told me the best way to get started was to turn our community into a non-profit co-operative,” he says. “This would help us to stand out when we approached Harrow Council.”

This proved to be a vital step. When Zahra Housing Co-op approached Harrow Council for funding in 2017, they were offered a start-up grant to help them find a plot of land.

But in Ameen’s own words, “we still didn’t really know what we were doing at the time.”

Fortunately for him, the next time he reached out for help and advice, a new entity had appeared on the scene: Community Led Housing London (CLH London).

 

How we helped 

When the team first met Zahra Housing Co-op, they were already well on their way. The team helped by providing the advice they needed to take things to the next level.

Explaining how CLH London got involved, Ameen tells me they “helped give us structure.”

“With their experience in housing, they were able to tell us what we needed to do in simple terms. All we had to do was follow their advice.”

Our Project Director, Lev helped Zahra Housing Co-op create their first tender and identify a number of suitable architects to send it to.

Then, Senior Project Adviser, Gemma helped the community create a brochure, which they later gave to Harrow Council. It outlined the community’s plan to build three homes on a brownfield site and included drawings designed by an architect.

This brochure helped convince the council to support Zahra Housing Co-op’s project and it wasn’t long before they were able to enter pre-planning. They were then able to achieve an agreement in principle from a finance provider to fund construction.

“CLH London told us what to do and we did it,” Ameen explains. “Without their help, we’d have been lost. It’s not an easy project, which is why you need expert advice – and that’s where CLH London came in.”

 

Wheels in motion

With plans and funding begining to fall into place, Zahra Housing Co-op will soon be looking to build their homes.

After years of trying to purchase his own home in his local borough, Ameen admits to feeling a little overwhelmed.

“Harrow means family to me. Harrow means community. I’m excited to finally be able to plant roots here,” he says.

“And I have nothing but positive things to say about Community Led Housing London. If it wasn’t for them, this project wouldn’t have happened.”

I ask Ameen what advice he would give to other people wishing to get started with community led housing.

“Start with your own community,” he says. “Find other people in the same boat as you.

“Then make sure you learn the skills and knowledge you will need down the line. You’ll learn as you go with CLH London’s help. Go to their workshops and immerse yourself in the world of co-operative housing.”

 

Start building your home today

The final question I ask Ameen is: have you enjoyed it?

“Yes,” he replies. “I’ve had lots of fun along the way.

“Housing in London has got to change. It’s become a profit-making commodity and spiralled out of control. This is why we’re committed to making our cooperative not-for-profit. We’re trying to make a real difference.”

Zahra Housing Co-op now believe they are less than two years away from moving into their own community-built home in Harrow.

“This is something we never thought we could do and we’ve gained lots of knowledge along the way,” Ameen says. “And we couldn’t have done it without Community Led Housing London.”

 

Have you got an idea for a community led housing project in London?

To learn more about the kinds of support available, visit our support page, sign up to our mailing list or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @CLHLondon to find out about upcoming events and training.