—experiments in stewarding commons owned infrastructures

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Acts of Commoning is a series of gatherings on how we can build community-led infrastructures for a better world. The events will be practice-oriented to exchange ideas in a playful environment with others, bringing together existing communities and campaigns or to reignite old ideas for a brand new world on fire.

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Upcoming events

March 21 + 22

Event 1: HOUSING

Co-living on common land is not a dream

• [ ] Film Screening
• [ ] Show + Tell
• [ ] Stink Tank workshop

Bookings here for the film on Saturday 7pm

Bookings here for the Workshop on Sunday 1pm

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Join us for a practice-led hands-on under-the-bonnet workshop and discussion series for how we can create change in a world on fire.

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Saturday March 21 6pm Drinks and tunes Film starts at 730pm

SOLD! Who broke Australia’s dream?

Join us on Saturday evening for a screening of SOLD! Who broke Australia’s dream? Laugh so we don’t cry at Australia’s housing crisis!

When did the great Australian dream go from owning your own home to owning someone else’s? Comedian Mark Humphries navigates Australia’s housing crisis, asking what can be done to fix it.

MARCH 22 Sunday 1pm - 4pm

Join us for a show and tell about housing models and how to push the conversation to commons-owned homes—in Sydney!

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Imagine if we could put housing, land, and institutions into common ownership? Custodianship, stewarding, commons — these are all terms we might be familiar with, but what do they actually mean? What would they look like in the context of Sydney? And what can we learn from where they have been tried and tested in other parts of the world?

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Guests

WORKSHOP PROGRAM

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Building Campaign

How would we design our media and communication strategy to position the CLT in a favourable position with stakeholders (Fed State Local government, local community, national conversation on housing, political parties) that leverages the benefits of existing and future artist communities and key workers working together to deliver diversity across class, city country divide, ethnic histories and cultural makeup?

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Building Community

Designing the housing cohort: Who would we consider, how would we recruit, and what existing ballot systems exist that might be useful to consider? Who are our allies in pitching this? Could we build a coalition of community housing providers to pitch for a section of the site? Is there an argument to build an artist live-work scenario for this site? What communities would we reach out to? Is there something specific about that location that would influence the cohort we would appeal to?

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Building Investment

How much money investment is required to set up the CLT? What available finances/funds are available to apply for? What is the business model?

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Building Organisation

What governance structure and legal advice and support is required to set up a CLT to pitch for the site? What are some things we would need to consider in building a robust legal governance framework for a community land trust specific to that site?

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Building Organisation

What governance structure and legal advice and support is required to set up a CLT to pitch for the site? What are some things we would need to consider in building a robust legal governance framework for a community land trust specific to that site?

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Building Design

What sort of housing would be appropriate for the site? What sort of housing mix should we aim for? How big can we dream—considering materials, architecture, cost, scale, scope and size? What do we know about the site? How many heritage buildings are there?

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Obstacles/Challenges

For each focus group consider these questions in terms of the main barriers to getting a CLT off the ground.

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General questions to consider for each group

What do we know about the site? How many heritage buildings are there? What is the surrounding location demographics? What legal and governance structures are available to consider? Who would be the housing cohort? How would we design a comms and media strategy to influence our pitch for the site? Who are our allies in this space? Would teaming up with other community housing providers benefit mutually all those who are interested in turning the site into affordable housing? What’s different about a Community land Trust in the context of affordable housing as an argument and a media strategy? What timeframe would we be looking at? How much initial investment would we need? What are the kinds of financial costs associated with building a community land Trust? what are the obstacles or barriers to getting a community land trust established in Sydney and in particular in relation to this site what are the other sites that we could look at?

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FIELD ROOMS [ site access opposite 230 Young Street, Waterloo]

More info: stinktanksydney [at] gmail [dot] com