Investing in Mary Ann Johnson Housing Co-op

Appeal for Loanstock and Donations – Ends 31st January 2012
Mary Ann Johnson Housing Co-operative needs money to grow – your donations or loans can support a radical, sustainable community-based project!

Mary Ann Johnson is a housing co-operative based in Tottenham in north London. It was set up a few years ago when a group of us decided to solve our joint housing problems and to take control of this part of our lives. We bought and converted a house in Tottenham, where two of our members live and in which we recently incorporated a small office that is available for local campaigning and community groups to use.
For over a year now, we have also been managing a property we do not own but that houses the rest of us. Our aim now is to buy another property to provide secure housing for all our members, and a sustainable base and resource for community activism and work for social change. To make this happen, we need to raise about £250 000 in the form of loanstock investments or donations. We are therefore appealing to all those able to contribute towards sustainable housing, the co-operative ethos and a better society, to help our radical project to grow!

Establishing affordable co-operative housing in London poses unique challenges due to inflated property prices. However, our co-op members have long-standing connections to this area of north London, and a long history of involvement in residents’ groups, and community projects and campaigns. We have made a promising start with our first house and want to extend this further to show that the principles of a better society, such as tenants having control over their housing, can be established even in the most challenging conditions.

Donations to our project would be gratefully received and should be regarded as a socially useful investment. Alternatively, we are seeking loanstock, the principal source of funding for many small co-operatives. This is a form of fixed-term loan made by groups and individuals to the co-operative. Rather than being paid back in instalments, the total amount borrowed will be repaid at the end of the agreed term.
We welcome investments of any size and would prefer loans with fixed terms ranging between 5 and 20 years. With interest rates being what they are at the moment, we would normally offer 0% interest, but we are happy to negotiate on an individual basis with each potential investor. Any investment made with us will be managed through a contract. Updates about our project and activities will be available on request (and on our website!).

We are a long-established group, who have had to overcome many obstacles to get this far, and have now gained valuable experience in buying, converting and managing properties. We are confident that our determination and resilience as a group, as well as the support we get from our membership of Radical Routes, a national network of co-ops working for social change, will enable us to realise our dreams – but your generosity is needed to make this possible!
Investing in Mary Johnson Housing Co-op is an investment in social change through sustainable housing, community-based politics and the possibility of a better future.

To find out more about the co-operative and for details of how to invest with us, fill in our contact form here (link opens on a new page)

Co-operatives Fortnight - How to set up a housing co-op

How To Set Up a Housing Co-op is an afternoon of workshops being held in
central London during Co-operatives Fortnight.

If you're intending to set up a housing co-op, or involved with a group that
is doing so, then this event will be for you. It aims to cover in
detail the issues you will face in incorporating, raising finance, finding
and purchasing a building - and keeping your group together along the way.

Workshops are facilitated by members of existing housing co-ops. The event is supported by Housing Justice and Radical Routes.
More information about the event and how to register is on the website -
http://www.housingcoops.org.uk

MAJ office is open and in use!

The Chester Road loft conversion has been completed, and the Mary Ann Johnson local office for local people* is up and running and already in use! Once the plastering got done all that was required was a lick of paint, a tidy up, and the office furniture moved in. There have already been Haringey Solidarity Group meetings in the small but beautifully formed setting, and there will no doubt be more requests from local groups to follow.

A little basic to start with, but it will soon become more lived in/disorganised

We can't stop marvelling at the plush smartness of the lovely new carpet

We even have a colour photocopier!

And let's have a look at those windows... they make the space lovely and bright.

It's a fantastic resource and a great space to do a bit of work in. We are absolutely chuffed to bits.



*We don't really call it that

Just needs plaster, a tidy and some decorating before the office can move in

Here are some more pics of our work in progress – the conversion of the attic of our house into a loft. It will be used as an office for MAJ, Haringey Solidarity Group (which we're all in) and possibly other local activists groups too. We've been really busy working on that all summer and it is now getting near completion. Tony has especially been putting a lot of time and effort into this, so big up to him. We've got the staircase installed, the electrics done, the dormer window and velux fitted in, the insulation and plasterboard done, and we're finishing putting in the floorboards. With all that, we're in no doubt that our next blog will proudly announce the grand opening of our office! Before we get there though, we still have a lot of plastering to do, and a radiator to install. Oh, and hope that Building Regs wont be the pain in the ass they can sometimes be and will just okay all the works... Then, we'll need to tackle all the decoration bits (painting, carpet, etc...) and think about furnishing the room. Once that's all done, we can have an office warming party and trash the place!

Look at those lovely windows! Much better than in our last post, eh?...

...but you still have to watch your step!

In other news, its been nearly a year since we've started managing the property we don't own but that houses a few of us. And it's been going fairly well. Lately we got gas and electricity checks done and a few other bits and bobs that improved the life of the co-op members who live there. The contract is up for renewal and we're optimistic we can carry on acting as a managing agency, in the hope of a better outcome for the future.

Finally, and because we need to house everyone in the co-op securely, we're in the process of opening a new bank account dedicated to raising money for a new property. We made an estimation of how much we need to raise and the bank account will allow us to receive donations or loans. No doubt that once we've published an appeal on our shiny new website, all potential donors will contact us begging to give money. They'd better anyway as we'll need quite a lot to top up our meagre savings. But nothing is impossible for Mary Ann Johnson housing co-op! That's the spirit anyway...

I'll go to the foot of our stairs

Building work at Chester Road has been going on apace - with the new staircase in, the loft conversion is really taking shape.



Getting the stairs in means we can progress more easily with the rest of the work.



Most of the major structural work has been done now, but it's still just a shell - there'll be a few more work days to come before we can call this an office space. And then, finally, we can stick the photocopier up there. I bet a certain person who's been living with it in his bedroom all this time will be chuffed when that finally happens.

It's spring! Time to dig out the circular saw...

Forget daffodils. You really know it's springtime when you hear the annual ad campaign by British Gas boasting about how they only just cut their prices because they like you so much and a fair world is what truly matters to them. Having said that, I'm pretty sure they were daffodils the neighbour's cat pooped on the other day in our garden. But what has really been blossoming at MAJ housing co-op in the last few weeks is building works. After our neighbours agreed to sign the party wall agreement we have indeed started the works for the loft conversion at Chester Road, the property we currently own. We also decided to eventually release the cat so everyone in the vicinity has been fairly happy of late.

The good news is that Alec, a builder friend of ours, has agreed to do some of the work for free as a show of commitment to the principles defended by MAJ and Haringey Solidarity Group, the local activist group we are also involved in which will be using the loft once it's finished. We are ever so thankful Alec.



The bad news is that Tony has started sawing through the ceiling and decided to make a hole in the roof so that the 5 stones-heavy steel beams that will support the loft can be fitted in. Using some of the grant money we received from Awards for All, we hired a company to crane the beams into the loft. We had the option to carry them up the stairs and fit them in ourselves, but Tony suggested it was safer to hire someone. Any excuse to make a hole in the roof...

Anyway, the works should keep us entertained for the next 6 months or so, during which we will learn some building skills as this was a requirement for the allocation of the grant. We are very much looking forward to this educational process. We are also full of wild, magnificent, possibly unfeasable ideas for this website, but mainly we want to look into ways of using it to advertise our office space-to-be to friendly and local activist groups.

More works took place at Terront Road, the property we have started to manage at the turn of the new year. They were mostly small repair and renovation jobs but they made the life of the co-op members who live there a lot better. Who would have thought being able to properly shut a door or to shower in a dry, unmouldy bathroom would make such a difference?

Finally, because too much is not enough, we are on the look out for properties near Chester Road and have even started thinking about ways to raise money. The aim is to get a place where the co-op members who do not currently live at Chester Road could all live together in a house we own, not just manage. What can I say, there's just no stopping us. We're like that at Mary Ann Johnson housing co-op. Today Chester Road, tomorrow the world!