Community solutions to the housing crisis

This project built a partnership between the university and a community partner to investigate ways to address the housing crisis. The Brighton and Hove Community Land Trust (BHCLT) was set up to support community-led housing in the city. The university’s Radical Futures Housing Forum was established to support community-led responses to the housing crisis and foster collaborations between academics, community organisations and local policymakers.

The organisations had worked together on an ad-hoc basis and identified a set of mutual ambitions. The Ignite programme supported and formalised this fledging relationship, taking important steps to developing a sustainable community-university partnership.

Ignite laid the foundations for a long-term collaborative partnership which has not only brought about mutual benefits for the partners, but made a real and material difference in our city. Currently, the partners are waiting to hear about a significant bid that was made to a Research Council to support further work together.

• In the run up to the local elections, the partners hosted a hustings that resulted in cross-party support for community housing.
• Secured from the council two new sites for community housing and cross-party support to find a further eight.
• Recruited an ESRC-funded PhD student to work on the history of cooperative housing in Brighton.
• Held an international conference with academics working with community partners to address the housing crisis in their localities.
• Set up an international network of academics working with their communities to address the housing crisis and sustain the project work.
• Held a local event for communities on community-led housing in Brighton.
• Developed a significant research funding bid to sustain the work of the project.