CoHab Toolkit
για την συνεταιριστική κατοικία στην Ελλάδα

The project aims at developing know-how and at raising awareness on cooperative and collaborative housing projects in Greece. Collaborative and cooperative housing are understood within the framework of social and solidarity economy, as an alternative form of affordable housing for low incomes, young people, students, vulnerable groups, etc. based on principles of democracy, solidarity and sharing of resources. 

With this project we wish to compile the collective knowledge acquired in the past six years as part of a process of cultivating the imaginary of collective property and familiarise  people with the principles and practises of cooperative and collaborative housing. This collective knowledge includes:

• Εxplorations of how different successful models of cooperative housing in Europe could provide inspiration for rethinking housing in Greece (Mietshäuser Syndikat, Zurich cooperatives, BCN municipal support policies, MOBA), 
• Methodologies of participatory workshops organising and local housing needs diagnosing,
• Exploration of  the existing legal framework with the support of experts, lawyers & tax accountants, and proposals of appropriate regulatory amendments.

The project will build upon the aforementioned experience, activity and network of the CoHab Athens Group in order to produce the following outcomes:

1. Toolkit for coop housing project development in Greece available through the CoHab webpage 
2. Two hands-on coop housing project development workshops in collaboration with interested local groups, one in Thessaloniki and one in Athens.

The project is part of a broader aim to develop a solid and long-lasting support infrastructure to raise awareness and support the development of collaborative and cooperative housing projects in Greece.

UPDATES:

Published articles:

Ματίνα Καψάλη & Δημήτρης Πέττας (2022), Έμφυλες διαστάσεις της (συνεταιριστικής) κατοικίας, available at: https://gr.boell.org/el/2022/09/30/emfyles-diastaseis-tis-synetairistikis-katoikias

Δήμητρα Σιατίτσα & Μαρία Καραγιάννη (2022), Είναι εφικτή η συνεταιριστική κατοικία στην Ελλάδα;,available at: https://gr.boell.org/el/2022/09/29/einai-efikti-i-synetairistiki-katoikia-stin-ellada



Athens workshop 04/06/2022

For the workshop in Athens we worked with a local interested group through preparatory meetings, every 2-3 weeks since early March. The informal group of friends had already done a preliminary research on buildings in the real estate market. We used one of them as our case study in the workshop. Split in 3 groups – legal form & vision, funding & business plan, design & program of uses, we tried to figure out possibilities & difficulties of building up a pilot project.

Thessaloniki workshop 29/09/2022

In Thessaloniki, our core participant group was the Perivolarides team, that has a 10 years experience in solidarity & cooperative economy and has already shown an interest on cooperative housing with their visit few weeks ago in Projekthaus Potsdam.

In both workshops, we used the same methodology and we concluded with the common desire to go on with our meetings in order to collectively produce knowledge and build a ready-to- implement business plan for the first cooperative housing project in Greece.