Very basically a housing co-op (as far as it relates to Cornerstone) is when a group of mates decide they want to buy a house together. When this happens the group form a limited company, beg, borrow, steal or even work and save a few thousand pounds between them as a down payment on a house. Get a mortgage from a sympathetic building society (the Ecology Building Society or Triodos for example). Get a top up loan ('cos you can't beg borrow or steal enough for the down payment) from a sympathetic bank (like Triodos). There is also a 'secondary co-op' called Radical Routes who will loan you money at a low rate of interest if you become a member. Find a suitable house. Buy it. And Bob's your uncle you have a housing co-op.

Then you pay rent to the housing co-op company and the company pays off the mortgage and the loans. If it all goes horribly wrong and the company folds then all you've lost is the down payment. If is all goes right then you've got a house that you can decorate as you wish, knock through as many walls as you wish (consensus and house withstanding) and generally adapt to your needs.

What you then find is that some people move on and others move in. Here at Cornerstone we only have one original member left after 5 years but all those who have left know that the money that they paid in rent (which probably belonged to Housing Benefit anyway) has gone to a much better cause than some money grabbing landlord who took weeks to fix the leaking roof and Stannah Stair Lift.

If you want more information on how to set up a Housing Co-op (in the UK) then get in touch with Radical Routes (who coincidentally use our address as their postal address) as there is (unfortunately) quite a bit more to it it than this page may suggest. Radical Routes produce a booklet (available for £5 from our address see home page) detailing how to set up a housing co-op. Radical Routes also produce a directory of existing housing co-ops that you can arrange to visit and so get a better idea of how it all works.

Another (arguably more useful) 'what is a housing co-op?' page can be found at the end of this link. This one is written by someone who actually has some experience of setting up a housing co-op.