The cohousing projects that are reducing social isolation in Bristol

Rachel Butler has been described as “the vision holder” by members of the Tiny House Community Bristol (THCB).

The 51-year-old, who lives in Stapleton, is well-deserving of the title.

Rachel was the one who first approached Bristol mayor Marvin Reeves in 2016 about her idea for a collection of small dwellings, each with their own lockable front door and private space, but which shared gardens, resources and a common house.

She was describing cohousing, and decades-old movement that reached the UK in the 1990s and now lays claim to 19 completed and more than 60 developing projects across the nation.

“Cohousing is about bringing people together to create more resilient communities,” Rachel says. “It helps (reduce social isolation) because some of the spaces in the community are shared, like a communal dining room where you can come together a couple of times a week to have a meal.

“You can also grow food together, or maintain the grounds together, or decorate things together. As soon as you’ve got shared spaces, you’ve got all sorts of possibilities.”

Jackson Moulding, a member of Ashley Vale Action Group, agrees. The group, which were behind a community-led housing project called The Yard in St Werburgh’s, is now integrating many cohousing principals into their renovation of Stapleton-based Bridge Farm.

“We’ve seen through Covid the lack of connection that people are getting, and how the need for connection is really important,” he says. “So projects where there’s the ability to be around people (are really important).”

He acknowledges, however, that living in community housing comes with challenges.

“Everyone has different ideas about how things should be, and even simple things like what colour we should paint the front door (can be disputed).”

That is why the cohousing model dictates that people have their own private residence as well, with Rachel saying that offers “a much more comfortable entry point into community living.”

Jackson agrees, saying: “What we’re looking at with Bridge farm is the balance between people having their own space, while also having the benefit of neighbours that they can connect with if they need to.”

A detail from THCB’s proposed site map. It will be developed further in conversation with Sea Mills residents. Photo: Tiny House Community Bristol

THCB is taking the idea that some cohousing sites employ, of having smaller private houses offset by larger communal spaces, to the max.

Residents will live in houses ranging from two-storey families houses of 61 square metres right down to 31 square metre bungalows, but with shared facilities that include a library, car park, eco-laundrette and play area.

“If you have shared spaces with the rest of the cohousing community, you’ve actually got access to the same amount of space,” Rachel says. “It’s just spread out differently.”

The reason for the small housing is partly environmental. Tiny homes use fewer resources to build and once built they need minimal energy to run.

Sharing resources is a big part of cohousing as well.

Cars, laundry facilities and other such devices may only be used occasionally, but may cost a lot to purchase, insure and maintain. Sharing the commute to work, or having a joint laundry will not only reduce energy consumption, it will also cut running costs.

“I’ve looked at a study of a community in the States,” Rachel says. “What with things like sharing cars, they’ve managed to get their housing costs down to ten per cent of what they were when they were living a conventional lifestyle.”

Affordability is “the big nut that we wanted to crack,” Rachel says, explaining that some cohousing projects are expensive to buy into.

“One reason why people have joined our group is to create genuinely affordable homes for themselves,” she says. “Part of that recipe is free land. Bristol City Council have been absolutely wonderful, and have used a social value calculator to dispose of land for groups.

“The way that works is that the greater the social value of your project, the less you will pay for the land – and our project has a lot of social value.”

The group was delighted to win a bid for a large plot of land in Sea Mills last week. This means that they have also met the conditions of an £80,000 grant from the Homes in Community Hands project, funded by Power to Change.

The free land is sorted, but the group is also looking to mitigate another affordability issue: the fact that many cohousing projects require residents to buy property, thus cutting out those who can only afford to rent.

THCB plans to tackle this with a range of different tenures, including both social and affordable rent options.

Bridge Farm is “a step back in time” says Jackson Moulding. Photo: Mark Simmons

Jackson is likewise keen to make Bridge Farm inexpensive to move to, but explains the “delicate path that needs to be trod” between repaying the loans used to buy the site, raising enough money for the build, building sustainably and keeping the site affordable.

“The more units we build on the site the more affordable it will be,” he says. “But we don’t want to build all over it because we value the green aspects as well.

“It looks like a little bit of a step back in time really, the cobbled street going up through the middle. So how do we hold true to the essence of that heritage? How do we balance keeping that green space while also being able to accommodate some homes?”

There is a long way to go for both projects, with Jackson unable to say when people will be able to move in and Rachel being “ambitious” that it will take three years. But while “it is not a next-week solution”, Jackson is keen that cohousing “is something that we should be embracing more of.”

As Rachel says, “society has got a loneliness epidemic. We are all in our own individual little boxes, and that doesn’t help us connect to other people. Cohousing helps.”

Main photo: Mark Simmons

Read more: New homes could be built on office roof in St Paul’s