Our approach in Oldham is to start with a conversation, find out what issues we are facing. Housing came up straight away. So we embarked on a discovery phase, talking to people where they are “community conversations”, running workshops to bring people with lived experience of the issue together with frontline workers in the community and public sector. Our group then made sense of all these insights and prioritised three areas to focus positive action around.
First, a more immediate solution. How can we provide secure lockers and postal addresses for people with no home. Second, a more system issue, how can we change the misinformation received by sanctuary seekers, leading to them becoming homeless. Finally a longer term ambition, how can we create more homes, bring more land and properties into community ownership and benefit. So we started to explore the idea of a Community Land Trust.
Another step we always take, is to look at what already exists, what can we add value to, not create yet another initiative. Low and behold, there already is a Community Land Trust locally. Unfortunately this only covers one neighbour in the Borough and has fallen into the trap so many initiatives do. Things take time, peoples energy wanes and can burn-out, funding or support diminishes.
So we’ve reached out, how can we help re-energise, broaden the purpose, bring our community engagement and networks to bear. It’s always exciting to create something new, no baggage or backlog of work to be done. But there’s also something rewarding about helping out, building on the work of others. So I’ve joined the Board to help them out, so they can help us out.
Our goal is to take on properties with a focus on providing options for temporary accommodation. We know there are 800 empty homes in Oldham, empty commercial properties on the highstreet. How can we not just bring more land and properties in community ownership and for benefit. But generate income and wealth to sustain and grow.