Join HOWCH | HOWCH

Hi there and welcome to the HOWCH website.

HOWCH stands for Hastings Older Womens Cohousing and we are a local group set up with the aim to offer alternative housing in an area where there is a shortage of affordable housing. We would like to introduce the alternative form of cohousing to the local market in order to alleviate some of this pressure.

HOWCH would like to set up a blueprint for how this scheme can work for many different groups in our society, however, the local HOWCH group is focusing on a community of cohousing for women in their older ages, a cause close to our hearts.

Loneliness and isolation has increased in recent years as a result of longer lifespans, cuts to social care services and families becoming more spread geographically. Age UK has proclaimed that loneliness and isolation is a “major health concern, because if loneliness is not addressed it can become chronic, seriously affecting people’s health and wellbeing”.

According to the same charity loneliness is set to soar among the over 50’s with half of all people aged 75 and over living alone. 70% of these are women. This is why we would like to provide cohousing for women over the age of 50 in Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea.

Hi there and welcome to the HOWCH website.

HOWCH stands for Hastings Older Womens Cohousing and we are a local group set up with the aim to offer alternative housing in an area where there is a shortage of affordable housing. We would like to introduce the alternative form of cohousing to the local market in order to alleviate some of this pressure.

HOWCH would like to set up a blueprint for how this scheme can work for many different groups in our society, however, the local HOWCH group is focusing on a community of cohousing for women in their older ages, a cause close to our hearts.

Loneliness and isolation has increased in recent years as a result of longer lifespans, cuts to social care services and families becoming more spread geographically. Age UK has proclaimed that loneliness and isolation is a “major health concern, because if loneliness is not addressed it can become chronic, seriously affecting people’s health and wellbeing”.

According to the same charity loneliness is set to soar among the over 50’s with half of all people aged 75 and over living alone. 70% of these are women. This is why we would like to provide cohousing for women over the age of 50 in Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea.

INFORMATION

Join HOWCH

We want to open doors for single women over 50 across Hastings and St Leonards. With a potential site within this local area, our first pilot cohousing scheme is to develop a community of 15 individual flats with their own front door, kitchen and living room, bathroom and bedroom(s), access to a balcony or small terrace, with shared facilities: dining room, kitchen, guest room, public toilet, laundry, communal garden, parking and shared cars. The initial idea is that this will be a mix of one and two bedroom homes.

It is our pioneering vision to combine the Community Land Trust (CLT) ethic with cohousing, where the community retain the longer term freehold interest and the community share in the day-to-day operation of the scheme. We aim to be environmentally considerate and less reliant on cars.

We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us!

We are assisted by Sussex Rural Housing Hub and are an incorporated legal entity.

If you are interested in becoming a member of HOWCH, please click here to fill in our application form, and return it to

HOWCH