Sense of belonging

hese are very exciting times for our group and we want to take another opportunity to explain, in our words, what cohousing is all about. Our group got together in 2010, inspired by the success of cohousing communities around the world, and increasingly so in the UK. Our primary aim is to create an intergenerational mixed tenure cohousing community of between 20 and 40 homes in Oxford.

A cohousing community is small enough that everyone can be familiar with each other, but large enough not to force them to be. Cohousing communities are built around a shared desire for, and sense of belonging, neighbourliness and mutual support. Cohousing communities are not collectives, cooperatives or communes. Everyone has their own private home, but everyone also benefits from extra shared facilities and spaces that allow – but don’t require – members to do things together.

Living in a cohousing community brings a few extra responsibilities, but many more benefits. Features of cohousing communities include: a common house – a building with a range of shared facilities for use by members of the community; common ground; the exclusion of cars from the community as far as possible; and a strong ethos of environmental and social sustainability in how the community is designed, built and managed. Our bid to Birmingham will include our strategy to manage and enhance the woodland on the site, continuing the educational use made of the site by schools.

Our group holds a monthly open meeting – see our website (www.oxfordcohousing.co.uk) – to which we welcome anyone wanting to find out more about cohousing. If we are successful in our bid to purchase Stansfeld, then we will be recruiting people interested in joining us, as owner-occupiers, shared ownership tenants, or social-renting tenants.

Sarah Westcott
On behalf of Oxford Cohousing