RAD Housing: A model for Retrofitting and Decommodifying housing (Black Spark)

A 90 minute workshop on one possible model to build housing collectives that focus on retrofitting housing for the climate crisis, while also contributing to the decommodification of housing for public good.

Australia's approach to housing as a speculative financial investment has failed to deliver affordable, secure and ecologically sustainable housing. There are many paths to changing this, including direct action pressure, militant renters organising, and electoral politics. In amongst these other solutions, many of us value building intentional community structures like share houses, housing cooperatives, community land trusts and so on.

RAD Housing is one possible approach to collectivising housing which attempts to provide a pathway for a group of people with a range of income levels and available capital to work together. It's one model to consider, alongside many other models available in the space, but it focuses on the following two characteristics.

1. Retrofitting existing suburban housing: New eco-builds are great, but construction causes nearly 40% of the world's carbon emissions so we also need to find a way to re-use what we have, and get it ready for a post 1.5 degree future.

2. Decommodifying housing by moving it into community stewardship. We don't think private ownership is necessary to provide secure lifelong housing, but Australia's approach to rental falls far short of providing an strong alternative. This model is a transitional path to starting with capitalist housing purchases and ending with housing not owned by individuals so that the focus can be on how to fairly treat the need to house people while participating in Land Back movements.

What to expect?

This workshop will consist of 90 minutes of slides and talking from your presenters, with a small amount of interactive component, Q&A, and opportunities to share your perspective on the possibilities and challenges the model highlights. The material covered is essentially available at radhousing.org if you don't like presentations. The RAD Housing model, while similar to some other housing collective models (like Community Land Trusts) has some unique elements that we have not yet worked with lawyers and accountants on, so this is an early share with our community, not a ready-to-use structure.

There is no call-to-action or specific invitation to join a RAD Housing project as part of this workshop. The model is being used by a collective in the planning stages, and other collectives are very welcome to use any of our materials, but individual collectives have their own approaches to building relationships together and may not be generally recruiting.

Venue & Accessibility

This event is at Black Spark Arts & Cultural Centre. Black Spark has a front entrance of standard width, with a tiny lip at the door. The toilet is a single cubicle with a sliding door, without handrails.

There are several seating options including low and high stools, chairs with backs, and a modular velvet lounge. Split system heating and cooling, as well as an oscillating fan, is located in the main room.The main room has warm-toned ceiling spot lighting, music room has cool-toned ceiling spot lighting, with two large warm-toned lamps as additional or alternative lighting options. Masks are available and we encourage people to wear them.

Our projected slide presentation will be on a dark background, and will not contain moving pictures or flickering lights. There will be no amplified sound, and the room can contain a moderate amount of traffic noise. If there's anything we can do help you participate in the workshop (eg; providing Auslan interpretation), please contact your hosts at crew@radhousing.org.

This talk will take place on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurring people of the Kulin Nation.