Cooperative Housing International (CHI) recently featured two webinars to provide an overview of how to start a housing cooperative. There are many different steps involved in getting a housing cooperative off the ground and it requires a lot of planning and many discussions. Luckily you get to share much of this work with the other members of your group.

In the first session, we discussed the basic steps in creating your core group and defining your goals and which model (rental, equity, limited equity and self-help mutual aid) is the best fit for your goals. Being familiar with the cooperative legislation in your country is also quite important.

In the second webinar, we discussed basic steps like enlisting expert external support. You’ll need advice from tax and legal experts, organisational and property development professionals and the list goes on. We also talked about incorporation, growing your membership, developing policies and procedures. Joining sectoral organisations to access advice, resources, training and advocacy is also key to developing a successful co-op. In addition, building a new building or acquiring an existing one plus all the associated loans, permits and grant applications are a huge part of the process.

Blase Lambert, Chief Officer with the Confederation of Co-operative Housing (CCH) in the UK was the expert guest for these first two sessions and Julie LaPalme, Secretary-General for Cooperative Housing International was the facilitator.  If you missed these webinars you can catch webinar 1 here and webinar 2 here.