Maxime Zaït, Communa, Belgique

(This episode is in French)

À Bruxelles, il y a plus de 6 millions de mètres-carrés vides, et entre-temps des milliers de personnes sont à la recherche d’espaces décents et abordables pour se loger ou mettre en place des initiatives. Maxime Zaït est avocat, recherchiste et co-fondateur de Communa, STUN Europe et Fairground Brussels, des organisations sans but lucratif qui s'intéressent à la création de communautés et à la lutte contre la vacance immobilière afin de créer des lieux temporaires, pour transformer la ville à long terme. Maxime s'est promené pendant plusieurs mois dans huit pays en Europe afin d'étudier le droit à la ville, le droit au logement, les modèles anti-spéculatifs, la mise en commun et l'usage social temporaire. Dans cette conversation Maxime partage avec nous les différentes approches qu'il a vues et les problèmes similaires qui existent à Bruxelles et dans les endroits qu'il a visités.

Communa Website: https://communa.be/

Ander Zabala Gomez, Sostre Civic, Spain

Sostre Civic is a cooperative in Catalonia, Spain that promotes and develops housing cooperatives under the right of use model. This housing model consists of collective ownership of a building or a number of buildings by the housing co-op. Members of the co-op have the right to occupy a particular apartment by mutual agreement but do not hold exclusive ownership. Sostre Civic also makes use of a pre-emption right mechanism that exists in Catalonia whereby civil society has the first option to buy abandoned properties.

Rosie Moore, Peterborough Housing Co-op, New Zealand

This week we feature Rosie Moore from Peterborough Housing Co-op in Christchurch, New Zealand. The Peterborough Housing Co-operative was founded in 1982 but had to be rebuilt after experiencing extensive damage in the 2011 earthquake. The coop rebuilt a unique pocket neighbourhood in the heart of Christchurch, with community at its centre. 

In this episode, Julie LaPalme, CHI's Secretary-General talks with Rosie about growing up in a housing coop and now raising her son in one.

Ana Džokić

Ana Džokić is an architect, with over 20 years of experience pioneering unconventional approaches to the challenges of contemporary urban development. Ana is a founding member of two civil associations that deal with the unsustainability of the current housing condition. In Belgrade, Ko Gradi Grad is setting up a new breed of non-speculative housing cooperatives; in Rotterdam, Stad in de Maak manages “toxic assets” of stranded Dutch welfare housing. She is the founding director of Pametnija Zgrada, the first housing co-operative established in Belgrade in the last 20 years, and a member of the management board of the European Cooperative Society, MOBA Housing. She is also one of the founders of the energy cooperative Elektropionir in Belgrade, Serbia, a pioneer in small-scale solar in Serbia. Elektropionir was instrumental in changing Serbian law to recognize communities as prosumers - producers of electricity for self-consumption.

Chan Hong, Minsnail Housing Co-op, South Korea

In this episode, we talk to Chang Hong, Facility Manager for Minsnail Housing Co-op in the Republic of South Korea. Chan discusses the origins and evolution of Minsnail Housing Co-op. It started off as a student housing civil organization in Seoul, South Korea that sought to create more affordable housing for students and young people. Ten years later, Minsnail Housing Co-op has 15 homes in three different cities. Join us for this conversation with Chan and find out more about Minsnail's journey since 2011 and what the co-op is planning for the future.

Brel Hutton-Okpalaeke

Brel Hutton-Okpalaeke is our guest for today's Coop Conversation episode. Brel is the Director of Development at The North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO), a network of student co-ops educating and organizing an emerging generation of cooperators. They talk to us about co-op life in Madison, Wisconsin, and the benefits of raising a young child in shared housing.

Emma Liebherr, Carlow, Ireland

In our latest podcast episode we talk to Emma Liebherr, who recently moved in a co-op housing community in Carlow, Ireland. In her previous home she was a victim of anti-social behaviour, but is now settled in what she describes as her forever home. Living in a co-op allows her to raise her family in a safe, spacious and welcoming environment.

Martin Müller, ABZ Housing Cooperative

In our latest podcast episode we talk to Martin Müller, a long-time ABZ housing co-op resident in Zurich, Switzerland. Martin also works for ABZ, Switzerland's largest housing cooperative. ABZ builds, administers and maintains 5,000 apartments in and around Zurich, where 11,000 people live in 60 different residential areas. Martin talks about how he and his family feel incredibly lucky to be living in a housing co-op and how their neighbours are like an extended family. Listen to Coop Conversations wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Sarcee Meadows and the Women’s Circle

In today's podcast episode we talk to Fariha, Fatima, Zaid and Juju, four youth living in Sarcee Meadows Housing Co-operative in Calgary, Canada. Living in Sarcee Meadows has given these four youth great opportunities to not only feel welcome and part of a larger family but to also learn about community service. We're also joined by another co-op member, Kathy Aubichon, also known as Auntie Kathy. She discusses the Women’s Circle, a group initially formed to learn more about the different cultures living in the co-op which has evolved into a larger entity doing important work in the larger community.

Brenda Torpy and the Community Land Trust Model

In this episode, we talk with Brenda Torpy who championed a type of affordable land ownership model called a Community Land Trust. She started with the Champlain Housing Trust in Burlington, Vermont in the USA over 35 years ago when she worked in the office of Mayor Bernie Sanders. Today there are now over 260 CLTs in the United States and over 300 in England and Wales. The Champlain Housing Trust is the largest Community Land Trust in the world with 3,000 homes of all types throughout northwestern Vermont serving people experiencing homelessness, homes for people with special needs, affordable apartments for the working class, and a pioneering shared equity home-ownership program that removes financial hurdles for buyers while creating housing that is permanently affordable.