# Self Help Housing online platform (England, UK)

Self-Help-Housing.Org is an online platform covering self-help housing in England and that, [according to its own website](http://self-help-housing.org/about/), wants to:

* raise the profile of self-help housing
* map what’s currently going,
* put existing projects in touch with one another
* help develop new local projects &
* increase the resources available to self- help housing

Self help housing is interesting because it complements the market- and the state-based approaches:

> “**Self-Help Housing” involves groups of local people bringing back into use empty properties that are in limbo, awaiting decisions about their future use or their redevelopment**. It differs from “self-build housing”, which involves constructing permanent homes from scratch.
>
> Self help housing groups negotiate with the owners of empty properties for their use and then go on to organise whatever repairs are necessary to make them habitable. **These are normally groups of people who can’t afford to buy their own housing and whose housing needs are such that they will not be offered a permanent tenancy by the local authority or a housing association** (e.g. all sorts of single people, couples, young people, refugees etc).
>
> The properties are often “borrowed” on the basis of a licence or sometimes a lease, for a specified period of time. On occasion, future plans change and the buildings may even become available on a permanent basis.
>
> Source: [Self-Help-Housing.org, What is self help housing?](http://self-help-housing.org/what-is-self-help-housing/)

Self-Help-Housing.org includes a directory of over a hundred self help housing organisations and more than 20 cases studies in England:

* [http://self-help-housing.org/directory-existing-projects](http://self-help-housing.org/directory-existing-projects/)
* [http://self-help-housing.org/case-studies](http://self-help-housing.org/case-studies/)


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