(the source material for the case study linked to above, questions asked by Kareem Dayes of RUSS and answered by John Hands): > 1. When did the project start? > As President of the University of London Union 1966-67 I formed a group of college union presidents known as Project R to promote the development of student housing co-operatives whose resident-members would collectively own and run new build housing schemes. In April 1968 four of us founded Student Co-operative Dwellings, and in July we enlarged its board to 15 and I became its full-time worker. This was followed by 5 years of campaigning for legislative changes to allow housing for students and other young and mobile people to be treated like any other scheme for loans and subsidies, plus changes to allow building regulations approval for communal houses, finding land, raising finance etc. In May 1973 SCD registering Sanford Co-operative Dwellings (with its founder members taken from SCD's board of directors) as a housing society which could lease land from Lewisham BC, take out a mortgage with the Housing Corporation and with the Commercial Union, and contract the design and construction of 14 communal houses and 6 bedsitter flats. In September 1974 SCD changed its name to the Society for Co-operative Dwellings to acknowledge that it aimed to house not just students but the young and mobile in general. On 1 October the Sanford Cooperative Dwellings scheme was opened and a year later the founder members withdrew, handing over co-perative ownership and control to the resident members. See HC pp. 145-152 > 2. Who started the project? > See above > 3. How many people does it house? > Originally 152, although the numbers may now be less because of fewer members than 10 in each of the communal houses > 4. How much did it cost? > £435,100 (see HC pp. 76-78) > 5. How was the project funded? > Half mortgage from the Housing Corporation and half mortgage from Commercial Union insurance company plus a grant from the Inner London Education Authority towards costs of furnishing. See HC pp. 76-78 for details. > 6. Who owns the houses? > The Sanford Housing Co-operative (renamed from the original Sanford Co-operative Dwellings) whose membership is limited to the residents who have an equal vote in all matters. > 7. Size of plot? > One acre (HC p.148) > 8. Architect? – > The cheapest construction cost, and the only one we could afford, was a design-build package from Wates, the builders, to our specifications for communal houses etc. The Wates architect, Freddie Elliot, subsequently set up in private practice as the Elliot and Bilton Partnership. > 9. Demographic? – single people, no families, no children Our aim was to enable young and mobile people to cooperatively own and manage their own housing, because they did not qualify for local authority housing and we considered unacceptable the alternatives at the time of university controlled hostels or private landlords (frequently exploitative) . (See HC Chapter 6) Lewisham BC had classified the Sanford site as unsuitable for family housing. Originally, single people occupied the communal houses and childless couples the flats.