"Community-Led Housing is an example of bottom-up, active citizenship as its best, with the potential to put the humanistic perspective of housing provision centre stage."
President Michael D. Higgins
Foreword to SOA Publication
"What we’re aiming for here is neighbourhoods. Society is opening up to people living as active citizens in a participative society, and how are we going to embody that? How are we going to build that?"
Patrick Lydon
Inclusive Neighbourhoods, Callan
"The project is entirely self-managed by the residents of La Borda. We try to reach consensus and big decisions are taken during our monthly assembly when every family is present."
Carles
La Borda, Barcelona
"When I first heard Barnet, I thought “Who wants to live here?” But in the end, how you live becomes more important than where you live…at least that’s what it did for me: I cared more about how I lived."
Heidi
New Ground, London
"It’s somewhere between renting and owning. Paying 35% of our income is good because it means that low earners can also afford to live here. Fuel bills are extra but mine are only €10 per month."
Eden
LILAC, Leeds
"Often people say, isn’t it the same as sheltered housing for older people? It really isn’t. The difference is it’s the group that are in charge here. We run it. We manage it."
Maria
New Ground, London
"I finally wanted to get out and find my own home. But, it’s really not easy to find a barrier-free flat. It’s been possible for me to find a shared flat group at Spreefeld, and I enjoy living with two other young women"
Sophie
Spreefeld, Berlin
"We worked on how to do affordable housing and how to do customised housing – not in order to raise the value of the house, but to give people an idea how to adapt the apartment to their own needs."
Verena
R50, Berlin
WHAT WE DO
Through a series of projects we aim to inform the Irish public in regard to alternative, socially and environmentally sustainable housing models.
Roadmapping CLH
We've published our Roadmapping a Viable Community Led Housing Sector for Ireland research in a series of booklets, available for download here.
SHICC/CLT
We've created a new section to the website, focused on the EU Community Land Trust project we're engaged in as Irish partners for 2020-2021.
Resources
SOA’s work involves research into collaborative housing models which are common in Europe and North America.
Conference
A two day event held in June 19 in Dublin. Speakers from various European countries described how Community-Led Housing works in their cities.
COHOUSING CAFÉ
An occasional event organised in various locations in order to bring interested groups and contributors together. Entry is free and all are welcome.
Advocacy
We are advocating for and developing proposals by engagement with the general public, professions, social groups and government and financial bodies.
news
A snapshot of recent news and upcoming events.
On 31st March SOA held a second online Community Land Trust Cafe, as part of our SHICC partnership. The ...
→On December 4th, SOA along with our SHICC partners presented an event entitled Community Land Trusts: Building Common Ground ...
→On 28th October SOA held the first in a series of online Cafes, intended as part of our SHICC ...
→SUPPORT/COLLABORATORS
SPONSORS
