Our story
Our community started when members of a local housing cooperative just up the street from where we are now read a news story about cohousing. It took 12 years of hard work, big feelings, births and deaths, but we made it!
Our story so far
2010
A local conversation begins
Members of a small housing co-op on Spencer Place invite neighbours and friends to explore building a cohousing community in Chapeltown.
2010s
A community takes shape
More local people join the work of planning, fundraising, designing and making the project happen.
Today
A resident-run cooperative
ChaCo is home to 29 households, with private homes, shared facilities and an equal say in the life of the community.
Our model
Chapeltown Cohousing is a housing cooperative that owns the land, the homes and the shared facilities. We offer affordable rented and shared-ownership homes on a very long term lease. All our tenants and residents are members with an equal right to shape our cooperative. We make decisions by consensus. We run the community in task groups and make decisions in a monthly general meeting.
Our values
Sustainability
We want a community that is socially and environmentally sustainable, and our buildings and lifestyles to have as low a carbon footprint as possible. We do this by living in well insulated homes, composting our waste and sharing as much as we can to minimise our consumption, including washing machines and cars.
Diversity
We don't want to end up a community of self-righteous eco-freaks. We'd like to have as much diversity as possible in background, ethnicity, education, wealth, age and belief. We have some policies to make sure we live up to this value (we provide affordable homes and have an allocation policy to make sure we reflect the racial makeup of our neighbourhood). But more importantly, we learn from living in a diverse community.
Openness
We want to be part of our wider community. We want our children to be able to play safely outside – but we don’t want to keep others out. We enjoy building relationships with our neighbours in the streets around, and finding ways to make some of our facilities available to them.
Support
We look out for each other and aim to share the responsibilities of keeping the show on the road. We want to be generous with our time and possessions.
Setting and location
Statistically, it’s one of the most deprived areas of the country – but Chapeltown’s real wealth lies in its diverse and distinctive population. This is our home, we’ve lived here for decades and our experience is of a wonderfully diverse and vibrant area full of people who want to make things happen and want to take control of improving their lives.
We believe cohousing is one way of creating a local neighbourhood that works:
- A diverse and supportive community
- A place that brings together families and single people across generations
- Affordable, low-energy housing that residents help to design
- Plenty of green space, with room for playing, relaxing and food-growing
- Excellent shared facilities for the whole community
- A safe place for the kids to play
- Shared responsibility for community decisions
- Easy access to a bookable car-club vehicle
Cohousing is more than just a nice idea. It’s a conscious attempt to find a better way of living – better for ourselves, our neighbours, our society and our planet.
One of the main motivations behind those of us involved in Chapeltown Cohousing is the desire to be part of a genuinely caring community, where neighbours are looking out for each other and enjoying doing things together.
The site
ChaCo acquired a 1-hectare site from Leeds City Council, who were supportive of the idea of a second cohousing project in Leeds, following the success of the award-winning LILAC cohousing in Bramley, which launched in 2013.
ChaCo is located on Leopold Park Road in Chapeltown, Leeds (LS7 4AX).
Local context & statistics
According to the Indices of Deprivation 2019 explorer, ChaCo lies in one of the top 5% most deprived areas of the country – but it’s improving. (To use this tool, enter postcode LS7 4AB into the search). Key statistics from the Census are available on Nomis.