Selfsufficientish.com

Have been reading about the squatters today on an Island in kent I believe and one of the comments on the particular site I was reading about was talking about some of the council housing unfit for human habitation which is going to waste in various probably undesirable locations in the country.

I've visited several groups running commune style great houses, living on plateaus and being self sufficient etc.

Wouldn't it be nice to be a bit more self sufficentish in these matters?

If we gathered enough like minded people together to 'take over' (I don't mean squat, I mean approach councils the right way in a 'housing association of sorts) an deprived city area and just turn it round...

The general aims would be:

Reducing social deprevation in the area & enviromental impact
Starting a freeconomy
Turning urban areas into population supporting spaces (growing food, providing communial transportation and services)

Any such interest?

I'm not talking about integrating into a community, I'm talking about taking over an abandoned estate or area and using group skills and labour to improve.

you mean this lot http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7999287.stm ?

and there site http://ravensait.org.uk/ the ravens Ait TV bit is great, it shows loads of what they are doing for the site, which includes a large garden area.


I have squatted big buildings and setup communities similar to the Ravens Ait people and I have even tryed the "asking" thing but that never worked because we never had a spare million quid or a suit.

There are a huge amount of empty buildings and homeless people / people in need of better housing, indeed there are more than ever with the credit crunch. I believe that communities like this will start to appear, some will do well, others will fail, but people will learn from them and start other ones.

we can't expect anyone else to do these things for us, we have to do them for ourselves.

There's some sort of scheme here in Liverpool, a group of people from various backgrounds and professions who want to put their money into a green housing project. They want to take over an area of terraced houses and have a small community run in the most eco friendly way possible. Still not been to any of their meetings, though my friend has. There's a location in Liverpool where the council have let the houses run down, pople haven't lived there for years (talking bout when I was a kid) and having been on the council waiting list I know there are a lot of people waiting for a home while these stand empty, it's criminal. Maybe we should take over them!

my point exactly...

where are you based?

Not in liverpool I'm afraid, I'm a southern softie living not far from Southend on Sea.