Frustrated with the housing options available to older people, and irked by the fact that we are blamed for not making timely decisions and ending up in a pickle, motivated me to join with others to develop new concepts for housing in later life.
Conversations with the late Esther Salamon, artist and community activist, led us to turn our frustrations into developing a new concept for housing in later life which would enable us to live out our lives with purpose and mutuality. We are not just looking for a roof over our heads, but an intentional community where we would have a stake in shaping the place we live in. We launched Independent Creative Living and started conversations with the people who might live there, architects, developers, local authorities and others.
After 9 years, we are still trying to bring our concept to fruition. The nature of how we think about land and property in the UK does not favour community-led initiatives, especially if the community has limited financial resources although they may be wealthy in creativity and contribution. But we refuse to give up and will keep pushing local authorities, housing providers and developers to think again about what they believe is suitable housing for an ageing population. You can read my blog and what inspired me to pick up the baton Esther offered and work persistently to bring this concept of housing to fruition.
It’s difficult to identify what we could have done differently. We drew on the expertise, knowledge and networks from our work with the Elders Council of Newcastle and our involvement in the Future Homes project with Rose Gilroy at Newcastle University. We have networked, seized every opportunity we can and done our utmost to find our way through the opaque system. We know from other community-led housing groups just how difficult it is and congratulate those who have made it through and delivered.
Barbara Douglas
