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Habicoop has proved its usefulness by the role it has played in the last 12 years in helping housing cooperatives to emerge. However this dynamic, if it is to continue, needs Habicoop more than ever to accompany both project groups and institutional players. Unfortunately Habicoop is suffering from the generalised drastic reduction in public funding which is putting our action in jeopardy. Today Habicoop needs your help!

Habicoop, who is it?

The original association was created 12 years ago. It became the French Federation of Housing Cooperatives in 2015 and federates about twenty cooperatives.

What's a housing cooperative? Its a group of people who get together in the spirit of solidarity and mutual aid whose goal is to collectively manage dwellings and shared spaces by direct democracy refusing speculation , at cost and without profit.

Our success stories

The "Village Vertical de Villeurbanne", the first French housing cooperative and Habicoop's pilot project, was delivered almost 4 years ago, and inhabitants now live in their walls. Two other cooperatives will be delivered this year and two others will start building in 2018. Fifteen are being set up at different stages.

In parallel, thanks to our long-term lobbying and expertise, we obtained a legal statute for cooperative housing in 2014.

Helping Habicoop… to do what?

In France, the growth of cooperative housing is still hindered by a certain number of barriers , particurlarly legal, regulatory and financial. A major part of our work will be to eliminate these barriers.

We have achieved major steps in recent years and now enter a promising development phase. However, we have lost the major part of our public funding. So we need your support to rebound, complete our projects in 2017, find other sustainable sources of finance and move forward with our work programme to eliminate barriers (see below).

Will it work ?

Although they are new in France, in other countries housing cooperatives are tried and tested! Quebec, Switzerland, Germany, Uruguay and elsewhere, alongside individual ownership and rental, housing cooperative have become a genuine third route for housing, outside speculation.

Help us sow new seeds of cooperation.

Together, let's help a « coop spring » to flower all over France !

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Our upcoming tasks

#1 - Make our young federation sustainable :

• we'll create Habicoop à Fond !, an endowment fund for the French federation of housing cooperatives. We will then be able to mobilise social entreprises as patrons to support the housing cooperative movement dynamic ... which we can't do for the moment!

• find new partners and sources of finance for the long-term

#2 - Boost our capacity to accompany groups of future inhabitants whatever their financial means :

Groups setting up housing cooperatives only have significant funding when they have obtained their building loans. However earlier stages (land purchase, design,...) can last several years.

In the meantime, groups need to be professionally accompanied, which has a cost. So we are working with cooperative and institutional partners to create a national start-up fund to carry the start-up costs until the cooperative obtains its loans.

_Interested by the start-up fund ?

See the interview

(in French only) by Valérie Morel-Thomas, coordinator of Habicoop._

#3 - Engage in new lobbying activities to eliminate barriers to the development of housing cooperatives :

We are confronted with several tasks in different domains (legal, regulatory, financial, etc). These tasks are technical, but the issues aren't! It is a question of enabling everyone, whatever their means, to have access to a dwelling in the form of housing cooperatives; to obtain equity of treatment for housing cooperatives vis-à-vis individual ownership; to obtain grants necessary for the use of housing cooperatives for run-down property in small towns suffering from economic recession ; etc.

We have already started working on several of these topics with institutions and professionals. Others are identified but we don' have the means to successfully complete the tasks without the success of this crowd-funding campaign!

_You want to know more about the extent of the ongoing tasks ? Discover the series of interviews (in French only)

"Developing housing cooperatives? Work in progress!

_

#4 - Accompany and promote solidarity between housing cooperatives by mutualising competencies and financial resources:

The Village Vertical de Villeurbanne in 2013, Chamarel Les Barges in 2017, Abricoop in 2017… and soon others (Graine de Bitume, H'Nord, etc.) : the first housing cooperatives are starting to pop up here and there in France. On the basis formed by these cooperatives we must structure the movement and create solidarity by sharing competencies and financial resources.

For example, we're trying to make a mutual fund possible for the financial resources which cooperatives constitute over time. Thanks to these reserves, cooperatives cover repairs and building work, unpaid "rent" if an appartement stays inoccupied or variation in interest rates since the Social Housing Loans often used by cooperatives are indexed linked.

_More explanations on the mutual fund, good idea ? See the interview (in French only),

it's here !

_

Le porteur de projet

Our vision

Housing should be a common good and a fundamental right, not a commodity. We work actively to remove housing from speculation so it will be permanently accessible for all.

Design and manage our own dwellings, develop relationships with our neighbours based on mutual aid, sharing and exchanging services, ... In a cooperative housing, democracy and ecology are at the heart of living place!

In a world where neoliberal policies attempt to impose competition in all fields, we take part in the development of cooperation and solidarity within society by creating the conditions for its growth in the housing domain.

What does Habicoop do from day to day?

We accompany project groups in setting up housing cooperatives , in all imaginable fields, based on their needs and requirements: finding a building plot, finding partners either financial, social housing organisations or developers, legal and administrative structuring, group dynamics, … Set up can take several years, so can our accompaniment and it extends into post-delivery.

On a national level we inform, raise awareness and lobby. We inform institutions, professionals and the general public about housing cooperatives and the advantages of this new model. We work with partners and experts to eliminate legal and financial obstacles which hinder more rapid and easier development of the cooperative housing movement.

Finally we participate in the organisation of national co-housing meetings and we build links with other more older and more advanced cooperative housing movements (Switzerland, Quebec, Uruguay, …) for mutual aid.

How you can change the rules – Behind the scenes of lobbying (in French only)

Key dates of our activity

2005 : Creation of Habicoop « 1^st version » to kick-off the French cooperative housing movement.

2013 : The 1^st French housing cooperative, the Village Vertical starts its life within its walls!

2014 : We obtained a true legal statute for housing cooperative based on our proposals.

2015 : Habicoop becomes the French Federation of Housing Cooperatives ; it federated around twenty on creation.

2016 : The building started on Chamarel les Barges (Vaulx-en-Velin) and Abricoop (Toulouse).

2017 : In the 2^nd half of the year the cooperators of Chamarel les Barges and Abricoop will start living in their walls.

2018 : Foundation stones of Graine de Bitume (Grenoble) and H’Nord (Bordeaux).

Discover the adventure of the first two French housing cooperatives

"Village Vertical – A new path for housing" (French, with English subtitles) - Documentary by Mathieu Wilson, 2016

Voir

"Chamarel Les Barges" - France 3 Rhône-Alpes TV report, 2016

What is my contribution for?

10000.00 €

Make the federation and its actions sustainable!

Our grants have diminished... but not our energy nor the number of projects for 2017 ;-)

15000.00 €

Create « Habicoop à Fond ! »

Mobilise social economy entreprises to co-finance our movement

20000.00 €

Boost the accompaniment of projects !

Concerted action with our partners to support project groups from the outset

30000.00 €

Action and progress in all directions !

Undertake more lobbying to get more favorable conditions for housing cooperatives

<div id="ProjectGoals"> <h2>What is my contribution for?</h2> <div class='project-goals'> <div class="project-goal"> <div class="project-goal-amount">10000.00 €</div> <div class="project-goal-content"> <h3>Make the federation and its actions sustainable!</h3>

<p><p>Our grants have diminished... but not our energy nor the number of projects for 2017 ;-)</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p></p> </div> </div> <div class="project-goal"> <div class="project-goal-amount">15000.00 €</div> <div class="project-goal-content"> <h3>Create « Habicoop à Fond ! »</h3>

<p><p>Mobilise social economy entreprises to co-finance our movement</p></p> </div> </div> <div class="project-goal"> <div class="project-goal-amount">20000.00 €</div> <div class="project-goal-content"> <h3>Boost the accompaniment of projects !</h3>

<p><p>Concerted action with our partners to support project groups from the outset</p></p> </div> </div> <div class="project-goal"> <div class="project-goal-amount">30000.00 €</div> <div class="project-goal-content"> <h3>Action and progress in all directions !</h3>

<p><p>Undertake more lobbying to get more favorable conditions for housing cooperatives </p><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;</span></p></p> </div> </div>

</div> </div>

1st level (10 000 €) : we sustain the federation… and its activity

Thanks to your support, we will be able to undertake our missions and projects until the end of the year. In concrete? We actively accompany 20 member cooperatives most of which are in the process of setting up. We move forward on 3 work programmes for legal and financial aspects to make it easier to set up housing cooperatives. In parallel we continue to work on the ramework of the federation and look for alternative sources of finance for the long-term.

2nd level (15 000 €) : we create "Habicoop à Fond !"

With another 5000 €, we'll create Habicoop à Fond !, an endowment fund for the french federation of housing cooperatives. We will then be able to mobilise social entreprises as patrons to support the housing cooperative movement dynamic ... which we can't do for the moment! Your gift won't disappear into the fund, it just enables its creation.

3rd level (20 000 €) : we boost project accompaniment

With several other partners, we can pursue our work to put a start-up fund in place. This fund is very important for a lot of projects which, independently of their financial resources, can then be professionally accompanied from the beginning without putting the economic ressources of the accompanying structures at risk.

_You want to know more about our start-up fund ?

See the interview

on this subject by Valérie Morel-Thomas, coordinator of Habicoop-AURA._

4th level (30 000 €) : actions and progress in all directions !

With another 10 000 €, we'll be able to progress with other "workshops" (information and awareness raising for the general public, accompanying the cooperatives which are already set up, mutualisation of resources, ...) We will also lobby for the creation of financial and banking tools better adapted to the needs of housing cooperatives.

_You want to know more about the scope of our upcoming tasks? Discover our series of video interviews (in French only)

"Developing housing cooperatives: work in progress!"

_