CLT Ghent
Obtaining land
CLT Ghent succeeded in obtaining the ground for our first CLT homes. We have a verbal agreement with the City of Ghent, the written contract has yet to be finalized in the upcoming months.
Planning and preparation
CLT Ghent has been planning the course of the upcoming year and is preparing everything to facilitate the building process and the habitation of the first 34 CLT homes in Flanders, Belgium. The majority of this preparation contains creating and finetuning the legal bodies on which this, and following, projects can lean. In cooperation with our future/interested residents, board members and experts we are working on themes like allocation, fees, capacity building, potential affordability allowances, etc. These themes will be eventually finalized in a document, which will form the base of our operations.
Warme Wijktuin
During the past years, Samenlevingsopbouw Gent vzw initiated a community garden called the 'Warme Wijktuin' on the ground of the upcoming CLT-project. This temporary use project is now coming to an end, as the first preparations of the building process are starting in a few months. We are now trying to relocate and anchor the project all over the Muide-Meulestede neighbourhood. That way the added value to the neighbourhood can continue on existing.
London CLT
London CLT getting ready to launch its second Community Share Offer
After a successful community share offer to fund the development of the St Clements site, London CLT is looking to raise ~£600,000 to fund the development of 40 homes at Cable Street, Shadwell between March and June this year.
London CLT partners with Quality of Life Foundation
London CLT’s chief executive will sit on the board of the newly created quality of life foundation. The foundation aims to develop a set of quality of life principles and come up with ways of affecting change in how the housing sector works.
London CLT speaking at the Academy of Urbanism housing event
London CLT’s chief executive, Calum Green spoke about the St Clements project and the GLA small sites program on 12th February.
FMDV
The year 2020 is off to a flying start for us! The Working Group on Collaborative Housing Finance coordinated by FMDV has finally released a call for tender for the realisation of a pre-feasibility study on the financing of Collaborative Housing at the European scale. This exploratory work aims at analysing promising financial mechanisms to be put in place in the second phase of our programme in order to scale up the model.
The choice of the expert will be determined by mid-February for delivery of the work by late May. We very much hope to be able to present the results of this study at the “On Common Ground Conference” (Brussels, 3-4). Stay tuned!
In parallel, FMDV has also been busy finalizing a Financial Guide for CLTs development in Europe. This toolkit highlights 16 financial instruments enabling to deliver genuinely affordable homes in NWE. FMDV will be presenting this Report during an online webinar ‘Thursday February 27, 2020-3PM (CET). Don’t hesitate to join us register >here<
Finally, FMDV carried on strengthening partnerships between local groups and French OFS around the land and housing issues. FMDV has actively engaged with CoopEtoile (a resident’s cooperative) and urbaMonde - one of our associated partners- in order to unlock the Start-Up fund in France. CoopEtoile should be the first group to be supported by the SHICC programme on the territory, possibility followed by a second one later this winter.
These actions are notably part of the municipal elections (March 2020) where cities such as Paris or Montreuil have committed themselves to developing the OFS model locally.